Trying to rent a flat but no references

Looneyvee

Hello,
Me and my boyfriend are trying to rent a flat in London,
I’ve just moved in his place (which is technically rented by his flatmate, so he doesn’t have a contract and pays his rent to his friend) temporarily, and have moved out of my place, where I had a joint tenancy contract. I left 6 months early and found someone to replace me, but the contract has not yet been renewed, therefore I’m subletting until the current tenants decide wheather they prefer to keep the sublet thing going till the end (end of April 2018), or renew the contract for 6 months.
We had to fill referencing applications through homelet.
There’s no problems with my boyfriends application, but there is one with mine, as my previous landlord doesn’t want to give references (because the contract is still going).
I can’t prove that I paid my rent because I was transferring my share of rent to a joint account, not directly to the landlady ( I did attach the bank statements with the rent transfers, but they mean nothing).
We’re also both self employed, we showed our tax returns and our net income appeared to be a bit lower than what it really is (because of our high expenses allowance, which is deducted as well as taxes from our gross income), but it’s not as big of an issue as my landlady refusing to give references.
I told the letting agency that we’re happy to pay 6 months of rent upfront (I have enough money saved to cover all of it myself, without asking my bf half of it!), but they’re waiting to see if the landlord approves.
I’m really scared because I paid £500 holding deposit and I will not have it back, if we can’t rent the place:(( I’ve spent a lot of time to find this place and not being able to move, on top of losing £500, makes me feel absolutely terrible! It’s not the easiest thing for a couple to just rent a room in a flatshare in London!

Is there anything I can do, other than offering 6 months of rent in advance? (Which I’m happy to pay) it’s scary how stupid landlords can really !!!! someone over like this:(

theartfullodger

Sorry to read your story.

Or offer a guarantor/guarantors?

Just keep presenting the valid evidence you do have, calmly & politely, hopefully someone will use their brain some time.

One's tax return indicating "our net income appeared to be a bit lower than what it really is.." tell us quite a bit. btw my Son, needing a large mortgage, completed his tax return "forgetting" about many expenses, giving larger apparent income, so higher mortgage offer, but at the downside of higher tax bill & ongoing tax payments. You have/had that option too: Yup, I've been self-employed also...

Yeah, landlords can be really stupid: I certainly am from time to time. Being stupid is no bar to being a landlord: (Or tenant: Or agent: Or MP.......)

Artful, Landlord since 2000.

btw my best ever tenants came with only the reference from a neighbour of mine who knew them: "Mr Artful they very nice people" (she was not a native English speaker). They were, never any issue or problem.

Looneyvee

Thanks for the advice,
We don’t have guarantors because we’re both Europeans (my dad’s income wouldn’t even be enough, he earns about 2k euros after taxes and that’s a good salary in Italy lol)
Ive graduated from uni in 2014 and moved in London in 2016, and in a year and a half I’ve been saving About £500 every month after taxes (reason why I can cover 6 months of rent alone). Both me and my partner started working as self employed a few months after the start of last tax year (April 2016-2017), therefore the tax returns don’t exactly show what we’re currently earning (since last April I’ve earned £1.9k on average, my boyfriend slightly less, and the flat is £1k to split in 2).
The letting agency was really understanding of the situation, I’m just hoping that the landlord will approve us. If not, well it’s a week worth of earnings lost and maybe a lesson learned (=don’t try to rent through an agency without having flawless and complete references I guess)...plus flatshare hunting again...fingers crossed!

saajan_12

* Can you ask a previous LL for a reference?
* Can you ask your most recent LL for a statement saying the bits that are factually true (you lived there for x time, rent on time, inspections fine during that time) without them thinking they are committing to anything re the current tenancy.
* Can you submit the bank statements of your rent payment along with your contract showing the same amount. They may well accept this, I don't think the new LL would / could check which account they went to, as long as you were paying.

Looneyvee

*I could ask my previous landlord for references, but I believe he was renting illegally (basically he bought the house to a couple years back, then decided he didn’t want to live there anymore, and rented out the rooms, money by cash, for a while, until he finally decided to put the house on the market and sell). I wouldn’t want to put him in trouble for this because he’s just a man who bought a house by mistake (and was lucky to have good young tenants)
My old landlady refuses to give references AND answer my emails thoroughly (one of the reasons why I had a hard time moving out, despite me spending time and efforts to find a replacement tenant). I could ask my old flatmate her bank statements showing that we sent the money through her account, but we’re not in a good relationship because she and the other flatmate didn’t approve me moving out because the tenant I found was only happy to pay £x for the room (£50 on top of what I was paying), instead of £Xz (£100 extra instead of £50). They had freedom to ask such demand because of the “rules” of the joint tenancy, although this sounds like extortion. I asked my landlady for help and she got !!!!ed at me and isn’t giving references because of this, and she isn’t updating me about deposit money nor anything else...It’s crazy.....

Looneyvee

*already tried the third option (show contract and bank statements), but the contract states that we as a whole (of 3 individuals) have to Pay £x total rent (I only paid a bit more than a third into the joint account, because obviously we split!). It’s basically one contract with 3 names (therefore if one pays late or damages the property, everyone else is screwed). The copy of the contract that I have hasn’t even been signed...I don’t know if im more upset about this landlady constantly pretending that she’s on holiday/dead, or about this landlady not giving a f about her tenants pretending they’re landlords (=my old flatmates who wanted to save £50 each every month, by charging a new tenant extra money, and made me want to kill myself), or homelet for being so ridiculously strict