Renting without a guarantor?

danielsmithlondon

There is a flat my partner and I are interested in. We are both full time mature students. Our respective families support us financially.
All of our parents are retired and so cannot be used as a guarantor. This is despite them having considerable financial reserves due to selling off a business. 

The estate agent requires us to have a guarantor or to be able to pass the credit checks. As students obviously we do not earn enough between us. 
How do you convince a landlord to rent to you without a guarantor and as a student? The only thing I can think of, is to pay 12 months rent upfront. 

coffeehound

Even offering a year's rent upfront may not be enough, and computer will still say 'no'.  Some LAs will consider that you are financially independent if you hold a certain amount of money in your bank account.  You could ask the LA what conditions satisfy financial independence for the property.

luvchocolate

The biggest problem at the moment is the period it takes to evict due to non payment..hence why more landlords are insisting on a guarantor 

[Deleted User]

Can't pension income or home ownership qualify a guarantor?

Also, I suspect you're looking in areas that are a bit too high demand. 

Why not try for somewhere which (I'm guessing) doesn't have an SW postcode?

musehead

I was able to do this twice in SW London about 10 years ago with no trouble by paying 6 months rent in advance each time. Had a good (although short) credit history, so should have passed any credit checks they did. Situation may be different 10 years later though!

AnotherJoe

Its Deja Vu all over again .. twice

How many threads are you going to have on this?

This thread plus

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6265575/how-to-win-rental-property-with-multiple-offers/p1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6265099/estate-agent-refusing-to-allow-us-to-view-a-property/p1

And what you havent mentioned here is, there are twenty people ahead of you in the queue to see it !

You need to find a LL that doesn't have these considerations, that will accept a years rent in advance. Probably few and far between. Maybe look at a house share?

AdrianC

Look at it from the landlord's PoV.

You have no income.
You are reliant on hand-outs from family.
Your family do not qualify as guarantors because they do not earn enough.

Substantial rental periods paid up-front are a tactic beloved of tenants planning to use the premises for less-than-genuine purposes - hydroponic gardening in the loft, or an operating base for ladies of negotiable virtue.

Then, when that pre-paid rental expires, what then? It's currently about two years to go from the first unpaid rent to a court granting possession. THAT's why landlords prefer tenants with predictable income.

Salemicus

Far more annoying than the repeated threads is that people keep giving you advice and you don't even acknowledge it, let alone incorporate it into your thinking. What do you imagine anyone can tell you that hasn't already been ignored?

Sotts

This has been posted at least twice before and each time you add a bit more.
Grown ups both living off your retired parents plus a huge sense of entitlement.

My suggestion is one or both of you leave the studying for a few months, go back to work and wait till you have some financial independence.  

theartfullodger

danielsmithlondon said:

There is a flat my partner and I are interested in. We are both full time mature students. Our respective families support us financially.
All of our parents are retired and so cannot be used as a guarantor. This is despite them having considerable financial reserves due to selling off a business. ......

Errr eh?? It's entirely up to the landlord (or agent acting for them) to decide if a guarantor is OK.  I'd more than happily take a retired guarantor with, say, pensions of over £25k pa plus multiple properties in their name (as it happens that matches me.., aged 73).

If a landlord/agent declined such a guarantor they would merely be demonstrating that it is not a requirement for a landlord to have even half-a-brain, or that to be a lettings agent (in England, bonkers!)  requires no qualifications, no training, no criminal records check.  Agent could be fully staffed by ex-cons from Brixton on early release from their convictions for GBH & fraud. 

My best ever tenants I had were recent arrivals in UK - no ££ history, no guarantor: The only reference or guarantee was what a neighbour I'd known for a couple of years telling me "Mr Artful, they very nice people".  They were, no problems.

So people in the lettings "industry" seem somewhat flaky (probably me included)

coffeehound

theartfullodger said:
Errr eh?? It's entirely up to the landlord (or agent acting for them) to decide if a guarantor is OK.  I'd more than happily take a retired guarantor with, say, pensions of over £25k pa plus multiple properties in their name (as it happens that matches me.., aged 73).

If a landlord/agent declined such a guarantor they would merely be demonstrating that it is not a requirement for a landlord to have even half-a-brain, or that to be a lettings agent (in England, bonkers!)  requires no qualifications, 

The LAs typically just farm it out to credit referencing agencies who use blunt instrument metrics for a yes/no result.  With the UK rental market perpetually overstretched, they can afford to be pretty broad-brush with the criteria.  With new waves of population coming in from Hong Kong and perhaps India, that situation won't change.