Renting, Partners DRO, Advice Needed

simonmt1981

Hello


this week my partner and I have found ourselves in a rather desperate situation.


on Monday we were informed by our letting agency that the landlord wants to rent the property to a family member and that we have 2 months to vacate the property.


having looked into that there is nothing we can do and well within his rights etc. However we now have a problem where we are finding it difficult to rent another property.


this is mainly due to the fact my partner has a DRO which she is currently about 8 months into. Now for some context this was for a few thousand pounds and was mostly payday loans that spiralled out of control etc. her rent at previous properties was always paid on time and she has good references from previous landlords and I have no reason to think we wouldn't get one from the current landlord as I always paid the rent on time and look after the property.


however the DRO is making it difficult to even get a letting agency to consider us. despite the fact that my credit file is fine and I am actually the main earner in the household (we are both in employment, myself full time, she works 30 hours a week) and could actually easily cover the full cost of renting by myself.


with such a small amount of time to find a new place I'm very worried we are going to be homeless in two months time.


As we haven't lived in the area for 2 years we don't even qualify for council housing apparently.


I really don't know what to do and could really use some advice.

rosyw

My daughter was in a similar position as she had a DRO & had to leave her rental when the LL wanted to move back in This was 2.5 yrs ago, they were upfront with the letting agents, and managed to get new rental fairly easily, albeit having to pay a larger deposit. She has very recently moved again,same procedure, totally upfront about the DRO, although by now this only has a few months before it drops off her credit file, the new LL was more concerned about their small dog than the DRO! It really is down to finding the right LL, although in my daughters case she'd ended up with the DRO due to illness following the death of her dad, which she explained to them.
It's not impossible, but the reason behind the DRO may have made a difference.

Good luck.

simonmt1981

may I ask was this through private landlords or a letting agency?

pmlindyloo

Letting agents tend to be stricter than private landlords.

If you go through a letting agent you could try:

Offering 6 months rent up front
Providing a guarantor

If neither of these are an option then you may be better off finding a private landlord through local newspapers/ads/through family/colleagues/friends.

rosyw

simonmt1981 wrote: »

may I ask was this through private landlords or a letting agency?

Both rentals have been through letting agencies,both times my daughter told them about the DRO before looking at any houses, both said there shouldn't be a problem if everything else was fine, which proved to be the case. Problems can arise if it's not explained to them that depending on the credit referencing, a DRO can show as a bankruptcy as the referencing agencies have no way to differentiate between the 2.

Pixie5740

Ultimately it's down to the landlord to decide whether or not to rent to someone although some leave it down to letting agents. My advice is to be upfront about the DRO before handing over any money for referencing.

FBaby

Indeed the agency should discuss such matter with the landlord and it should then be there decision whether to take what will be perceived as a risk (since they don't know you) and that is likely to come down to demand vs supply.

G_M

Ultimately it's a landlord's decision, and some will take particular circumstances into account, be more flexible than others.

the trouble with agents is that they are employed by the LL and have a duty to protect their client (LL) from risk. Some will therefore have strict criteria which they follow, especially when the LL has completely delegated the decision and the process to his agent.

In other cases, a LL may use the agent to find potential tenants, but then make the decision himself based. In those cases, the agent has less concern because the final decision is not theirs.