Bad Credit Means Being Treated Like A Criminal

KittLee

My first rental I was self employed with zero credit history, agencies would not even speak to me, so I just used gumtree and openrent and set the gumtree options to only show direct landlord contactable ones.

Just confirming that direct to landlord really is the best way, at least they'll meet you and have a chat most the time and can get their own feel for if they think you're trustworthy or not.

smdabs

Sorry to hear about your situation OP.


Have you tried Facebook Marketplace by any chance? It seems to be getting quite popular for private Landlords.


While I do understand many people's responses here re the risk to the landlord, there is ALWAYS going to be a risk to the landlord. I've known Doctors who on paper are the perfect tenant who have then ruined the house and stopped paying rent... and I've known unemployed people in significant debt who have consistently paid their rent to keep a roof over their family's heads - it's luck of the draw.


I genuinely think your best bet would be to speak directly to some private landlords so they can apply some common sense to their decision-making - the offer of 12 months upfront should be enough to sway at least some of them as you're at least removing nearly all risk for that period of time.


Hope you find somewhere soon, renting holiday lets must be a nightmare! I was quite lucky when I struck up a good relationship with my Air BnB LLs who ended up giving me their place on a 3 month term and I paid them the equivalent of what they'd get in rent as to them it was worth it to mitigate the risk of their place sitting empty (and they didn't have to pay for a cleaner anymore) - could again be worth a try for while you look for somewhere more permanent!