need 4 bed house but having trouble renting

Jonbvn

I never considered that there would be such drawbacks to having sveral kids.

Couldn't you sell a couple of them to medical science and buy a place outright? (Just kidding)

BrandNewDay

I'd go with offering double the deposit if you can at all afford it. But, be darn sure to get a good inventory and take lots of photos because it seems a lot of landlords just plain like to keep the deposit.

My little boy tore wallpaper off the wall, drew on a bunch of walls, and got green paint on the carpet in his room. We didn't get any of that deposit back....

BTW, in America, it's against the law for a landlord to ask about children.

Nenen

chriseast wrote: »

I certainly sympathise with you here. You become a second class citizen if you have 4 children or more (we have 5, though 3 have left home now). I used to work with a senior social services manager (ironically responsible for child protection) who also had 5 children and she said that social services automatically consider children from larger families to be 'at greater risk', regardless of background.

Wow! That must count as the sweeping generisation of the century on behalf of SS:eek: !

As a teacher, I can honestly say that the vast majority of children I've taught who come from stable, loving homes with 'lots' of children (anything more than two nowdays ) are far more likely to be kind, caring, well-balanced and able to share (time, attention and belongings) than their only-children friends! Mind you... I'd better not let my dh read this as he's an only child (but lovely with it)! The only down side of lots of siblings I've noticed is that they sometimes get less help with things like homework as parents have so much more to do and have to split their time into smaller parts occasionally. Having said that, the children from bigger families tend to become far more independant at an earlier age as they know that Mum and Dad aren't going to be chasing round checking up on them and picking up after them in the same way. So, it's swings and roundabouts really I guess... but having witnessed both sides (and me coming from a larger family and dh being an only child) we decided to have four children. Tragically we lost one son but even with three we find people think we're somewhat strange, so I can only imagine what it must be like trying to get a LL to take on 6!

I agree with other posters... unless you have to declare it on legal forms etc I'd be tempted not to mention how many children you have. Would it be possible for a granny/auntie to offer to have them to stay for a couple of weeks until you get settled and then 'unfortunately' that arrangement 'breaks down' and they have to return to you?

We had a similar dilema when we were looking for a rental place as 2 of our children are now over 18. Some agencies wanted us to pay for credit checks on everyone who would be living in the house who was over 18.... even though they wouldn't be contributing to the rent. :eek: If we hadn't got this place (through a colleague at work who didn't bother with any credit references at all for any of us ) we would have been inclined to give their university addresses as permenant addresses and they just 'visited' us in the holidays... we would have 'forgotten' to mention ds1 was graduating in the summer and coming back to live with us for a while!

I do think the PP suggestion of talking to the LL is a good one too... we have pets and found that agencies just said a blanket 'no' but when individual LLs were asked (with bigger deposit etc offered) they often agreed. From a LL's point of view, it surely can't be any worse renting to a large family than a group of 5-6 students can it?

Good luck in your search

merlinthehappypig

Jonbvn wrote: »

I never considered that there would be such drawbacks to having sveral kids.

Couldn't you sell a couple of them to medical science and buy a place outright? (Just kidding)

Believe me, I've been tempted.........unfortunately the value of kids hasn't kept pace with HPI.

Nenen

chriseast wrote: »

Believe me, I've been tempted.........unfortunately the value of kids hasn't kept pace with HPI.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Debt_Free_Chick

Where's the OP gone?

She did the same in July ... posted once then disappeared

Worryingly, the July post refers to a secured loan ... something not right here ....

silvercar

BrandNewDay wrote: »

I'd go with offering double the deposit if you can at all afford it. But, be darn sure to get a good inventory and take lots of photos because it seems a lot of landlords just plain like to keep the deposit.

My little boy tore wallpaper off the wall, drew on a bunch of walls, and got green paint on the carpet in his room. We didn't get any of that deposit back....

I'm not suprised!

BrandNewDay

silvercar wrote: »

I'm not suprised!

Neither were we!

Unfortunately, the landlord said that he had to hire professional cleaners and decorators to redo the entire house and would bill us for the difference. I'd cleaned the house carefully - including cleaning the oven - but he said that the WHOLE THING needed going over, including painting the entire exterior (some mud on a wall outside the back door) and he didn't have time to do it, himself, he needed to get it done up FAST and so he was going to have to pay top whack to get professionals in with a quickness. He indicated that this would be "several thousand pounds."

He never did send us a bill, though, so I think he was just trying to be really aggressive so we would never think of asking for our deposit.

Generali

I'd not mention them or at least not give a number.

clutton wrote: »

as a landlord i would be looking for a substantially higher than normal deposit for so many children - as they do "up" the wear&tear stakes considerably .... also it depends on their ages.

All the ASTs I've signed have stated that there would be no deduction for 'fair wear and tear'. I shouldn't imagine that you'd be able to deduct from a protected deposit on that basis. Perhaps you should up the rent. On the other hand, perhaps I'm wrong (unusual but it has been known - 1978 was the last time!).

Nenen

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Where's the OP gone?

She did the same in July ... posted once then disappeared

Worryingly, the July post refers to a secured loan ... something not right here ....

I keep telling myself..... 'it's only an internet forum dear'... but like you I get either worried or fed up (usually the latter) when someone posts a question, I (and others) bother to answer (sometimes taking time to research info etc) and then they don't bother to either hit the thanks button or post back etc. I can understand that some newbie posters don't know the protocol of the thanks button but it happens with long time posters quite often too... much more annoying! :mad: I try to remember all the people who do bother to thank (often unexpectedly) but interestingly it's the ones who don't thank who stay on my mind! (my dh tells me he can say nice things to me 99/100 and I forget them but the 1/100 negative remark is remembered unto death!)

Whilst I'm on the subject.... I also find it weird what some people thank for... often a post I think doesn't deserve/won't get thanked gets loads and then something that took me ages and I'd appreciate thanks for doesn't! C'est la vie! Oh well.. must get out more I suppose!