Cant Rent without a garuntor. Despite 50k income.

LTNRW

Wanted some opinions on this..

To me it seems insanity.
A local estate agent. In fact pretty much all of them are demanding garuntors on lettings. Thats EVEN IF you get through to that stage.

Around here for lettings they have open days on a given property. Meaning time off work to view.

Then all interested people can apply.
This involves proving income  and credit checks. Employment etc. 

And same for garuntor.


Only then do the estate agent choose who "gets through"  and then finally the landlord chooses between the applicants.


For example.

A working family. With household income of 50k
Letting a 700pcm property
Can provide deposit and rent in advance.
Fair credit ( can get loans and AIP etc)
Employer references

Yet they want a garuntor with an income of above 25k... surely even they see the lunacy there?!

Is it just me who thinks it should be first come first served. And providing you can afford the rent and have the deposit and rent in advance then youre good to go?!

Becoming harder to rent than bloody buy around here.

squizz11

same where I live in West London,  10 min slots for loads of people,   all can apply normally 20 applicants per house.   for the type of house I need,  we have to have income of £66000 and they want a working home earner earning the same amount.    

saajan_12

LTNRW said:

Wanted some opinions on this..

To me it seems insanity.
A local estate agent. In fact pretty much all of them are demanding garuntors on lettings. Thats EVEN IF you get through to that stage.

Around here for lettings they have open days on a given property. Meaning time off work to view. - well if its a popular property, then this makes sense, rather than disturbing the current tenants multiple times and paying for an agent's time to go back and forth. 

Then all interested people can apply.
This involves proving income  and credit checks. Employment etc. - well yes, they'd be handing over a many £x,000.00 property, its reasonable that they'd want to do some checks on whether you can afford, whether you have a history of not paying, etc. 

And same for garuntor.


Only then do the estate agent choose who "gets through"  and then finally the landlord chooses between the applicants.


For example.

A working family. With household income of 50k
Letting a 700pcm property
Can provide deposit and rent in advance.
Fair credit ( can get loans and AIP etc)
Employer references

Yet they want a garuntor with an income of above 25k... surely even they see the lunacy there?!
- sounds like the issue is the 'fair credit' - do you have some CCJs or defaults? Having a guarantor, even with lower income, gives the LL another person to chase and who may not want a CCJ, if they seem to care about looking after their credit more than you. 

Is it just me who thinks it should be first come first served. And providing you can afford the rent and have the deposit and rent in advance then youre good to go?!
- why on earth does first come first served make sense? Someone else who calls up after work instead who has a history of being reliable etc loses out because someone rang an hour earlier? REmember at the point of viewing etc, the LL doesn't owe you anything.. they don't have to let to someone for any reason (as long as not a protected characteristic).

Becoming harder to rent than bloody buy around here. - well only if you have 10x the deposit to buy vs rent, and the time for a 5x longer process. If you have those, then depending on the size / location, yeah the affordability criteria may not be much different as a lender has some strong leverage to get their money back. A LL doesn't, as it can take months or years to evict.  

To me it seems insanity that people expect the right to a property on their own terms from private landlords. There is significant regulation which means LLs are taking a significant risk on the person they choose to be a tenant, meaning its natural to expect rigorous checks. Dont like the competition? Choose a less popular property. 

LTNRW

I think you've missed the point there.

I am in a position to pay an entire year's rent upfront should I have to.. even more!

And no. I have no ccjs etc.   When I say fair credit I mean a missed payment in the past three years!

 If its good enough to get a mortgage on I can assure you its good enough for a landlord..
Due to circumstances unrelated I am not able to purchase for about 18 months or so
So would like to rent in the mean time


My point is that when a tenant
Has long term address history
Employment and associated references
Has no adverse credit.
Has an income twice the area average
And is willing to chuck extra months rent down in advance to secure something...

You genuinely think there's a risk there as a LL?

And even on top can provide a garuntor?

If you think the above is a risk to a LL
You must live a very risk averse life indeed!

If the above was a risk there'd be no tenants and no landlords what so ever!

AdrianC

LTNRW said:

I think you've missed the point there.

I'm not sure who has, but somebody has.

Remember, it's not the agent you need to convince, it's the landlord. Yes, the landlord may simply take the agent's advice...

The landlord wants a tenant.
The landlord wants a tenant who they are sure will pay the rent, every month, on time. That's all they want.
They have a pile of people waving money at them, and just one property.

If your household income is £50k, and the rent just £700pcm, there has to be SOMETHING that's causing alarm bells...

Where does this income come from? Is it PAYE salary, or is it something less... mainstream?

LTNRW

AdrianC said:

LTNRW said:

I think you've missed the point there.

I'm not sure who has, but somebody has.

Remember, it's not the agent you need to convince, it's the landlord. Yes, the landlord may simply take the agent's advice...

The landlord wants a tenant.
The landlord wants a tenant who they are sure will pay the rent, every month, on time. That's all they want.
They have a pile of people waving money at them, and just one property.

If your household income is £50k, and the rent just £700pcm, there has to be SOMETHING that's causing alarm bells...

Where does this income come from? Is it PAYE salary, or is it something less... mainstream?

Sorry to confuse...

Nothing is causing alarm bells...
Well not yet.. as I haven't even viewed this house in particular.
This is just following a conversation with the letting agent.

I just found it odd that a LL or EA would turn down an applicant who would willing to pay the entire contract up front to secure the property.. 


It may transpire that as its the most expensive house in the area for rent by a long way that the competition is slim as id guess not many can affordthe rent. And those that can. Have long since bought a property.. and that I DO in fact end up renting it.

( ps its not 700pcm but its the same deal for houses that are ) 

LTNRW

My and my partners salaries are both full time perm contracts 40 hrs and PAYE.
Jfyi

trevormax

Landlords have taken a battering over the recent pandemic.
Many tenants not being able to pay or refusing to pay rent, knowing that the LL is powerless to do anything about it for many months.
I'm sure many of those non-paying tenants were in strong positions before all this madness, then lost their jobs/income, and have no way to pay the outstanding rent.
Some of those LL's are having to eat that debt, because the tenants have no way to pay it back, and there's no sense in throwing good money after bad. At least with a guarantor in place, this gives the LL a second avenue of chasing down payment for the debt.  
The fact that it is easier to get a mortgage is irrelevant, as I imagine (and I may be wrong) that evicting a non-paying tenant is harder than evicting a non-paying owner. 

AdrianC

trevormax said:

...as I imagine (and I may be wrong) that evicting a non-paying tenant is harder than evicting a non-paying owner. 

Not really, but at least post-repossession the lender has the house to sell and recoup their money.

LTNRW

I understand that from A LL Perspective that they obviously want minimum risk.

But a garuntor on 25k.. is likely still paying their own rent or mortgage. And in my case..
If my garuntor met their 25k criteria would earn less than half than the actual tenant 

That is what I cant grasp

tenant  on 50k offers for example 6 months in advance on a 12 month initial tenancy. Plus bond and supplies credit and employment references etc.

The garuntor on 25k is paying their own mortgage etc..and therefore has limited disposable Income left 

Surely it would be just as hard if not harder to chase the garuntor for missed rent than the tenant.

Worst case you end up in court suing a garuntor with such low income that they simply can't pay.. meaning yoire no better off as a Ll Than you would have been by taking the tenants to court directly and starting evictions..

I may be wrong. And happy to be corrected.
I've never rented or been a landlord but to me a blanket garuntor requirement doesn't make sense..


Its like a footballer renting a 35k a month mansion and the EA asking him for a garuntor who earns at least 50k.. 

Two months behind.. the LL comes after me as garuntor..owing him 70k 
Clearly ill never be able to pay that..so he's still no better for it.

But I did meet the EA criteria to BE the garuntor...

GDB2222

Presumably, they want a guarantor who owns a house?