Cant Rent without a garuntor. Despite 50k income.

seven-day-weekend

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.

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.

No, I don't think it should be first come, first served.

I have one flat that I rent out.  Out of 27 applicants last time, we chose the ones who were pleasant and polite and who provided the paperwork we had asked for (we didn't ask for a guarantor).  Most people didn't bother to do this. Only about five disclosed their income. Obviously our couple had to pass the reference checks too. They were not the first to apply. We chose the people we thought would be the most suitable people to trust with our asset.

The time before that, we chose the one who applied last, for similar reasons.

However I don't see the point of having guarantors for everyone.

deannagone

Have you tried OpenRent?  Tends to be direct to LL rather than involving an agency.

I'm afraid as a tenant, who was messed around by a private LL, I can see the ways a tenant doesn't have protection from an iffy LL.., the system is definitely not perfect.  A 'professional' tenant can make a LL's life hell too.  

I do think that the pandemic, and inability to evict tenants who have used the situation to not pay rent (or can't pay rent) for extended periods have made an already imperfect system even less so, with LL's requiring more ways to collect their rent if the tenant can't pay.

Nebulous2

Its the landlords house and they can set the rules- often aided and abetted by the EA. 

My daughter was in halls with 3 other girls for their first year and on moving they wanted a flat together. Lots of 2 bed student  around, but competition for 4 beds was more intense.

One landlord wanted references, guarantors, £50 a month more than advertised and asked them to write an essay saying why they wanted the house. 

The one they finally got was a family-owned business, who did his own letting. He told them some home truths about looking after it, did very little if any referencing, no guarantors and said if they came back that afternoon with the deposit they could have it. He also said he rarely kept deposits, and true to his word on moving out he repaid them in full in 48 hours. 

nimbo

There are a whole host of things people consider when renting out to people. 

My agent was desperate to get me as a tenant.  (I work living in an area where lots of rents are covered by housing benefit), I’m a professional who is well spoken and they often struggle with tenants that neighbours complain about. (Although just because I’m well spoken doesn’t automatically mean I’m not going to listen to happy hardcore full blast at 3am.). 

The first home I applied for the owner declined me. I have an income of about 67k. In that instance they let to a couple. Reason - if one had lost their job the other would still have been earning. Which i may have been a bit miffed about at the time. But I get it. 

I was struggling to get to view anything before it had gone. Took one afternoon off to view five addresses and four had gone. The fifth they turned up with the wrong key. 🤯

my mother then agreed to view things for me as she’s retired. 

They then showed my mum my current address before the landlord had completed on the sale (they were also the selling ea).  Told my mum they’d get him to install a shower for me and it never got shown to anyone else. 

The whole place had been renovated. I felt really bad as he’d never viewed it - and the snag list was long. Including the bath having a hole in it where someone had dropped something.  

It’s manic. But landlords will make the choice they feel most confident in. 

Yes it’s frustrating.  Yes it takes time. But try to be super nice to the agents. This is the only reason they offered to show me / my mum the house before it was even on the market to rent. They knew I was a professional and given the often usual demographic of people looking at properties I was viewing they were keen to have me rent through them. (I’ve moved to a cheap area (read higher crime rate and kind of run down too) to help me save a deposit). 

Gavin83

deannagone said:

Have you tried OpenRent?  Tends to be direct to LL rather than involving an agency.

I'm afraid as a tenant, who was messed around by a private LL, I can see the ways a tenant doesn't have protection from an iffy LL.., the system is definitely not perfect.  A 'professional' tenant can make a LL's life hell too.  

I do think that the pandemic, and inability to evict tenants who have used the situation to not pay rent (or can't pay rent) for extended periods have made an already imperfect system even less so, with LL's requiring more ways to collect their rent if the tenant can't pay.

Expect this to get a lot worse. I think a lot of private landlords have already backed out, especially the type who only own one rental property as they don’t think it’s worth the hassle anymore. More will drop out as evictions start going through the courts again.

I certainly wouldn’t be a landlord in this day and age. It just isn’t worth the risk anymore.

seven-day-weekend

Gavin83 said:

deannagone said:

Have you tried OpenRent?  Tends to be direct to LL rather than involving an agency.

I'm afraid as a tenant, who was messed around by a private LL, I can see the ways a tenant doesn't have protection from an iffy LL.., the system is definitely not perfect.  A 'professional' tenant can make a LL's life hell too.  

I do think that the pandemic, and inability to evict tenants who have used the situation to not pay rent (or can't pay rent) for extended periods have made an already imperfect system even less so, with LL's requiring more ways to collect their rent if the tenant can't pay.

Expect this to get a lot worse. I think a lot of private landlords have already backed out, especially the type who only own one rental property as they don’t think it’s worth the hassle anymore. More will drop out as evictions start going through the courts again.

I certainly wouldn’t be a landlord in this day and age. It just isn’t worth the risk anymore.

I agree, with one property it is not worth the risk any more.  We will be selling up when our present (lovely) tenants leave.