Asked by letting agents for 3 bank statements to show proof of income

saajan_12

JustBee said:

I felt like it was quite intrusive, there's nothing to hide but I don't know who works there and what they're like as the artfullodger says. Anyway, decided not to bother as the garage that was on their advert is suddenly not part of the rental. And the letting agent told me that I'd be dealing with the landlady on a day to day basis which makes me ask, so why am I dealing with you. Access to the garage means going through the gate to the back garden which is fine but I don't know if they're going to be round all the time when I'm not there. Not saying they would but I'd rather not wait till I move in to find out.

Good points taken from all of you. I've rented before and never been asked for bank statements so I was taken by surprise. Looks like they all have slightly different ways of doing things.

They also don't know what you're like and whether you'll pay the rent or spend on everything else under the sun, and would rather not wait till the first missed rent payment to find out.  History isn't a guarantee, but its a good indication of your income, outgoings, debt payments etc, which your payslips don't provide. I would not let to someone who didn't provide this information. 

You're dealing with the agent because the LL has appointed them to find a tenant and deal with referencing. That portion has a lot of back and forth where the LL doesn't need to opine constantly, while ongoing maintenance of the property involves the LL much more to authorise repairs etc, so they may just want to do it themselves without the LA as a middleman. Perfectly normal, and tbh quite rude of you to expect to choose who you deal with. 

Jenni_D

I know my brother wouldn't want to submit any recent bank statements ... he arranged a day out for him and his mates where he bought the train tickets and the mates sent him their shares via bank transfer. Boys being boys you can imagine how some of those transfers were titled ..... 😂😂