Rent with an IVA and self employed

M_DWill1976

Newbie here!

Myself and my husband have rented for the past 12 years, 8 years in one property and in one since then.  Our landlord has decided to sell.

During lockdown, my husband set up an IVA and went self employed.  We put down a holding fee on a new rental and have been informed that it will returned due to the IVA.  As my husband has also not done a full tax year being self employed, they wanted a guarantor who earned 3 x the annual rental.  

Is this normal?  We are happy to disclose the IVA (which will be seen on the credit report anyway) but is this just dependent on whether or not the landlord is willing to accept someone with an IVA?  We are going to visit some estate agents this weekend and be upfront about our situation and the IVA.  It seems there is a lot red tape now that my husband has the IVA and has gone self employed and this could now leave us in a very difficult situation. We have been given 4 months to leave our current rental.

Any advice would be appreciated.  Our current landlord was looking for tenants to be in his property for a long time but unfortunately lockdown has affected everyone and I am now concerned that we going to struggle finding anywhere.  Plus the properties where we live and just beyond are gone before you even get a viewing as agents are accepting holding fees from people looking at the virtual tours.

RAS

The first thing to note is that you have been sent a S21 notice.

That does NOT end your tenancy. It is merely notice that if you are still in occupancy the day after the fixed tenancy ends, your landlord may seek to take you to court. Current backlogs indicate it'll probably be a year before he gets a date, possibly sometime late 2022/early 2023.

Meanwhile, you will "roll-over" onto a periodic tenancy. Read your tenancy agreement.

So be realistic. Stop looking. When will your husband have a full tax year as self-employed? Don't get yourselves identified everywhere as "the people who we had to reject."

Don't say anything to the LL now but when they do ask tell them you had a possible tenancy but it didn't proceed and it's currently a difficult market.

M_DWill1976

Wow thank you so much, that is very helpful!  My husband went self employed in July 2020 and apparently needs to have done a full tax year?  He has just completed something for HMRC but I assume his full tax year will be in April 2022?  

We have an issue finding a guarantor as we are in our 40's and 50's and all our male friends are self employed and we feel it is too personal to ask them if they earn enough to act as guarantor!  My parents would be happy to, own their own property but are retired.  There just seems to be so much red tape.  We are going to visit some agents this weekend, perhaps we will have to accept that we will have to go for a property which hasn't had much interest rather than us wanting to find a house that suits our needs.  

AdrianC

You are asking somebody to enter into an ongoing contract with you for an absolute minimum of £20-30k, due to the extended period of time it takes to regain possession from a non-paying tenant.

Meanwhile, you have no proven income stream, and a recent history of debt.

It's no surprise, really, that the landlord wants some reassurance that they're not going to be left high and dry...