Help needed with renting

Jesshughes99

I am currently 19 and looking to move out of my parents home to rent for myself.

My current gross annual salary is around £15.5k, taking home about £1100 monthly. I’m looking to rent a flat for around the £500 or less mark and am worried about the referencing and my wage.

My dad said he’s more than happy to help me out to start with and give me £100 a month if I need it, but I’m worried that the landlord or agents won’t accept me because I don’t really earn a lot and although I could definitely do the monthly payments of £500 plus bills etc with the help of my dad, I’m worried I don’t earn enough to be accepted? I know of all else fails my dad can be a guarantor, but he’s already had to be a guarantor on my car and I don’t want him to take it on with something else as well, as it’s not fair on him if my circumstances change.

Any help? Will I be accepted on this annual gross salary?

Cakeguts

Start with a room in a shared house. It will be cheaper and it will give you chance to practice renting the when you earn more move into a flat on your own.

EmmyLou30

Usually they say your salary has to be 30 times your rent so at £500pcm you're cutting it fine. Bearing in mind rent will likely rise quicker than your wages do. At your age I would be saying a room in a shared house is the way to go. Yes it's nice to have your own space but while you're so young it's generally a case of 'suck it up' and make do for a few years first in a house share. We've all been there either as students or early on in our careers where money is tight.

Fire_Fox

Welcome to MSE.

Do not underestimate the monthly bills on a small flat.

Electric heating and hot water can be eyewateringly expensive even on a modern well insulated property, as can gas heating in a less well insulated flat. Ideally a monthly direct debit leaves you in credit by Autumn, but you have had no time to 'get ahead' like this. You could easily be in knee-deep in debt to your energy supplier before Spring.

Your TV license is £25 a month for the first six months too.

It is less stressful and (hopefully) more fun to share a flat or house and share the bills with another young person.

danlewi2

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Welcome to MSE.

Do not underestimate the monthly bills on a small flat.

Electric heating and hot water can be eyewateringly expensive even on a modern well insulated property, as can gas heating in a less well insulated flat. Ideally a monthly direct debit leaves you in credit by Autumn, but you have had no time to 'get ahead' like this. You could easily be in knee-deep in debt to your energy supplier before Spring.

Your TV license is £25 a month for the first six months too.

It is less stressful and (hopefully) more fun to share a flat or house and share the bills with another young person.

Slight Exaggeration -
TV licence you can pay monthly (£12.87) or quarterly (£39.87).
Electric/Gas wont be eye watering if your on a good rate- shop around. Everyone goes into Debt over winter and then it averages out in the summer. After a year they review and then average out on your DD again. As long as your in for a year it will average out and then be adjusted.

A house share might be a good start - but a 1 bed or a studio flat isn't that bad either, end of the day you will always have bills to pay.
Keeping eyes on your luxuries are the main thing takeaways/shopping/ going out do you run or a car or take public transport?

falcieri

I agree with all this. Go into a houseshare and learn from the ground up what living away from home is really like an wait until you have more money to play with. Bills are never what you hope they will be.



At 43 I finally graduated from houseshares/lodging. I run my own business and my income is irregular, unpredictable and small. The only way I was able to get a tenancy was to agree to pay it all upfront for the term of the tenancy (6 mths) because I don't pass any financial tests. Thankfully I have savings so this is not a problem for me but I wouldn't recommend this for you as jobs are so unpredictable.

JennyJukes

I agree with everyone else. I earn between £150-£250 more than you a month and rent for £105 less and struggle! I don't drink or smoke, rarely go out socialising, don't do the gym etc. I have a car but I'm older so my payments are less. If you wanted to own and drive a car, go out with your mates every weekend, have all the TV channels and extras you want, then you will struggle IMO.

I'd say look for friends to share with or rent a room from sparerooms. Remember, if you live alone you'll have to pay full council tax (25% discount is still £83 for the cheapest where I stay but that's cheap compared to the rest of UK), full TV license for 6 months, full broadband/landline etc.

I have to rent alone because otherwise I would have to sell off all my new furniture (one still on finance) and I suffer from sensory processing disorders so it's difficult for me to live with others. It's a struggle.

JennyJukes

danlewi2 wrote: »

Slight Exaggeration -
TV licence you can pay monthly (£12.87) or quarterly (£39.87).

Myself and other people I've set this up for (I work with people who are struggling in tenancies or setting up tenancies!) have to pay around £25 a month because you pay your first license upfront in 6 months then it goes down to £12 a month. This is direct debit though, might be different if you pay using their card at a paypoint/post office.

Slithery

danlewi2 wrote: »

Slight Exaggeration -
TV licence you can pay monthly (£12.87) or quarterly (£39.87).

Nope......

TV_Licensing wrote:

Pay for your first licence by Direct Debit in six months, at around £25.75 a month. Then pay for the next one in monthly instalments of around £12.87.

[Deleted User]

Another option is, for a while, stay where you are, concentrate on training or putting yourself in a position to find a better job with a higher salary while your financial commitments are low (and also concentrate on paying off what you owe for the car as this will have a big effect on what you have available to spend).

If you don't HAVE to leave home, leave it til you can afford to do so more comfortably. I had no choice, left home at 16, and always struggled. I never really managed to catch up until many many years later. I could never go out, was always robbing peter to pay paul, life wasn't much fun. Ever. If I could have done things differently, I would have done. I was independent, but also damn lonely, and worrying all the time.

Fire_Fox

danlewi2 wrote: »

Slight Exaggeration -
TV licence you can pay monthly (£12.87) or quarterly (£39.87).
Electric/Gas wont be eye watering if your on a good rate- shop around. Everyone goes into Debt over winter and then it averages out in the summer. After a year they review and then average out on your DD again. As long as your in for a year it will average out and then be adjusted.
?

Some suppliers - eg. NPower - aim for customers to 'break even'/ reset the DD at the end of each financial year.

Suppose it depends on your definition of eyewatering. But single adults are one of the groups at greatest risk of 'fuel poverty'. Almost everyone I know lives in a flat. A good proportion do not heat their home adequately in Winter.

"The average annual cost for heating and hot water using electricity in the UK would be around £776 per year if you use around 4,200 kWh of electricity and are on a standard single-rate tariff*. That’s around £200 more per year than gas heating ...... There are a number of factors that affect heating bills, including the age and size of a property, how well it's insulated, the efficiency of the hot water and heating system, how much heating and hot water the inhabitants use, and where you live in the UK."

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/home-heating-systems/article/home-heating-systems/electric-central-heating

"When you choose to spread the cost of paying for your TV Licence, you usually pay part of it up front which means your payments will be higher in the first six months. Under the regulations for our monthly Direct Debit scheme you usually pay for your first licence over six months or less in payments of around £25.75."

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ173

Fire_Fox wrote: »

.
Electric heating and hot water can be eyewateringly expensive even on a modern well insulated property, as can gas heating in a less well insulated flat. Ideally a monthly direct debit leaves you in credit by Autumn, but you have had no time to 'get ahead' like this. You could easily be in knee-deep in debt to your energy supplier before Spring.

Your TV license is £25 a month for the first six months too.