Partner's employer won't complete reference check

Sussex97

My partner and I were meant to be moving to a flat together next week. We have to leave our current place by Tuesday (18/06/2019) and were hoping the paperwork would be completed by this date so we could move straight in. It's been an incredibly stressful 2 months trying to find a flat within our budget that will accept a dog and cat and us needing guarantor (I recently left my job to focus on my degree before baby arrives) but we are almost there.

We were sent the reference forms last Thursday (06/06/2019). We completed ours within the day as did the guarantor and his employer. The issue is, it has been a week and my partners employer are yet to complete the reference form for him despite numerous phone calls and emails.

The company who deal with the referencing are a recruitment agency rather than the company he works for. We contacted them on Monday to ask when it will be completed and they said they will attempt it within 10 working days. Unfortunately this will result in us being without somewhere to live for a week as well as risking us failing the reference check altogether and the Landlord pulling out and us losing our holding deposit. We have spoken to the individual dealing with the reference directly and were assured they'd get it done immediately given the urgency. This was 2 days ago. Rentshield have since contacted us to ask why the reference has not been done and said the employer link has now expired. Rentshield contacted the individual doing the reference and were again assured it would be done by Wednesday midday. Of course this was not done.

We were meant to be signing the contract tomorrow and now I am having to look into moving our furniture into storage, having our cat put into a cattery and finding alternative accommodation until the paperwork is done. This is becoming incredibly costly as well as stressful and not what I want to be doing whilst heavily pregnant. I am at a loss with what to do with hurrying up this reference. Is it normal for companies to take this long? We are effectively going to be homeless if this is not sorted quickly, and certainly will be if the landlord pulls out which i suspect he will if they take another week as they had planned to.

What more can we do to speed things up and is this behaviour acceptable on the recruitment agencies part?

Doozergirl

Go and sit in their office?

There's no excuse to not help people in your situation.

saajan_12

There is no obligation on the employer to spend time completing a reference with no benefit to them. Your options are

1) remain where you are staying (unless bailiffs are arriving or you've served notice, your current tenancy isn't ending and you can remain on a periodic tenancy even if a fixed term has ended or the LL served notice)

2) ask new landlord / agent / referencing agency if there's another way you can reassure them eg by a character reference from a previous employer or landlord, together with payslips and employment contract to show your income

3) Look for another property without such requirements (an employer reference is certainly not universally required)

4) Keep appealing to employer's better nature (though understand you are asking for a favour, you can't force them and demanding may just get their backs up)

Astar1809

Hey Sussex,

I am a seasoned recruiter and get a few of these a year. Can I ask is your Partner a PAYE Employee of the recruitment agency or is he paid by an external payroll company?

If he is PAYE with the Agency then they are able to offer an employment reference, if he is paid via a payroll company then they are technically the employer so they would be required to complete the form.

pinkteapot

I'd go with option 2 on saajan's list in the first instance - talk to the letting agent and explain. Ask if the landlord will accept any other paperwork in lieu of that one reference. If all other references and docs are in order they may well do.

Unfortunately, re option 3, every letting agent we dealt with did employment references. We only would have avoided them by finding a place through a private landlord and depending on where you are in the country there may not be many properties available through that route.

lookstraightahead

I had to chase my (huge and hr outsourced) employer when this happened to me. I told them it was causing me stress and anxiety and hey presto.

The other route is alternative proof.