Kensington mortgages - landlord reference

Hhp321

Hello,

We got our DIP from Kensington on 22/04 with the full application going in 23/04. As you'll probably have guessed, we have adverse credit but do fit the criteria for one of their products. 

Kensington have come back requesting a landlord reference. I'm a bit concerned about this in case the mortgage falls through and we'll have handed our notice in with the landlord already. It would be a nightmare situation.

We have never missed or been late with rent which can be seen on our bank statements. We are not trying to hide anything we are just very concerned about letting our landlord know when things are this uncertain. 

On their product criteria it states they don't request references with private landlords - which is who we rent from. We have shown this to our broker who is going to ask the question and get back to us.

In the meantime I was wondering if anyone with a private landlord has experienced this with Kensington?

Thanks

grumiofoundation

Kensington have come back requesting a landlord reference. I'm a bit concerned about this in case the mortgage falls through and we'll have handed our notice in with the landlord already. It would be a nightmare situation.

I have no experience of having to provide a landlord reference so can't help on that, hopefully someone will be along who can.  But did notice the statement above -

Why would you hand your notice in before exchange/completion let alone be considering doing this before the mortgage offer even comes though?

What will you do if the purchase falls through or is delayed past your notice expiry..?

Hhp321

grumiofoundation said:

Kensington have come back requesting a landlord reference. I'm a bit concerned about this in case the mortgage falls through and we'll have handed our notice in with the landlord already. It would be a nightmare situation.

I have no experience of having to provide a landlord reference so can't help on that, hopefully someone will be along who can.  But did notice the statement above -

Why would you hand your notice in before exchange/completion let alone be considering doing this before the mortgage offer even comes though?

What will you do if the purchase falls through or is delayed past your notice expiry..?

I wouldn't. If I had to let my landlord know we are applying for a mortgage for a reference though, he'd certainly take it as notice and start looking for other tenants. Hence why I'd rather not. I'd be put in that situation by alerting him to the fact we are applying for a mortgage. I should add that I've agreed an entry date that would allow for one month's notice so don't intend in making life hard for our landlord. 

All worked out ok in the end, we shouldn't have been asked for a landlord reference as we are private tenants so that was worry for no reason 😊

AdrianC

Hhp321 said:
If I had to let my landlord know we are applying for a mortgage for a reference though, he'd certainly take it as notice

He can't.

"Mr Landlord, we're thinking of buying a place, and a potential lender has asked us for a landlord's reference so we can get an AiP. Would you oblige?"
...is a very long way from...
"Mr Landlord, we're handing in our notice to terminate our tenancy, and we understand the last day of our tenancy will be Xth of Month. Please confirm this."

Hhp321

AdrianC said:

Hhp321 said:
If I had to let my landlord know we are applying for a mortgage for a reference though, he'd certainly take it as notice

He can't.

"Mr Landlord, we're thinking of buying a place, and a potential lender has asked us for a landlord's reference so we can get an AiP. Would you oblige?"
...is a very long way from...
"Mr Landlord, we're handing in our notice to terminate our tenancy, and we understand the last day of our tenancy will be Xth of Month. Please confirm this."

This may well be the case in technical terms but it was an awkward situation with potential for my landlord to keep pressing us for a decision on notice. I was hoping to avoid that if possible and did thankfully. It wasn't really a potential risk I wanted to take. We've had many bad experiences renting over the years and have been screwed over by landlords more times than I can count. I'm sure you'll find it pretty commonplace for those renting to not want their landlords to know they are thinking of buying until they have to.