Advice on Renting

roxy84

Hi, we have just put our house on the market because we can no longer afford the payments on it, currently £1025 month interest only and the £150mth for a secured loan. There is only about 5k equity in it but this is better than nothing. We can rent the same style house in the same area for only £650 month so this will save us a lot and enable us to get our debt into order.
The problem we have is that my OH and I both have CCJ's against us, there is no way we would pass a credit check done by agencies. My OH gets a half decent wage about 2k take home a month but i dont work due to recently having a baby and I am due again in June, we have been advised that Bankruptcy may be a good option to us later in the year (ive posted on BR forum)
We also have a large but very friendly rottweiller that lives outside most of the time, so this will be another problem.

Can anyone advise on renting in my situation?

I have been told by one agent they cant help us, and another said that we need to view a property first then pay our money for the checks to be done (even though i know we wont pass, think they were about £100per person) and then it would be upto the landlord if they accepted us or not, obviously if they dont we loose our money and still have no home, we could end up wasting a lot of money if they all decline us.
They also said 6 or 12 months rent up front may help with our situation.

Obviously i am getting worried now to where we will live, having a 1 year old and a newborn baby in June.

mcmanlyn

I'm in the same situation, i doubt i will pass a check and i want to get my own rented place asap (renting with a friend, but it's getting too full with her boyfriend there all the time!)

To save money just get 1 of you credit checked - whoever you think is the best credit-wise. Perhaps if you gave the agency wage slips showing that your OH gets a regular good wage this will help, maybe they can pass them to the LL with the check results.

tara747

A decent agent should NOT charge just to do a credit check. There may be a small admin fee if you do sign up with them but absolutely do not pay a penny to them at the application/enquiry stage!!!

Good luck.

pinkshoes

Have you both got bad credit ratings?

Don't forget it costs money to sell! (solicitor, then moving fees).

Prices have dropped in some areas, so are you sure you have £5k equity? You need to research the selling prices in your area, as you might end up with negative equity, then no deposit!

Renting privately (not with agent) can sometimes avoid credit checks, but pets are generally a definite no.

Could you consider giving up your dog? It would certainly save you money, which I'm sure would come in handy with a 2nd baby on the way!! Yes, I know giving up the dog sounds harsh, but if it means being able to rent somewhere, then it has to be considered!

moneysavinmonkey

To renting, I would suggest maybe trying private landlords - you can find ads in local newspapers or websites. They may be more flexible about pets etc + don't usually require credit checks.

Another option maybe if you don't score highly on your credit check is to offer to pay so many months rent up front - could you afford to do this?

If you only have 5k equity in your house, i would suggest that this may have already been eaten up by the recent house price falls since last summer... that's the bad news... the good news is that if there is no equity and you go for bankruptcy you will be allowed to keep your house... i think - check on the bankrupcy forum!

Obviously this option then requires you to be able to pay your mortgage so your going to need an action plan for that....
can you take on a lodger/ extra job/ work from home for extra cash - even if it's just something like doing other people's ironing / do an SOA and cut your outgoings/ make sure your claiming all benefits your entitled to.

That's just a few things off the top of my head, there will be loads of other gems hidden amongst the pages of this website! Good Luck!

roxy84

Thanks for all your advice

The house was valued at £190k last summer and we now have it on at £179,950 which all 3 agents we had to value said would be a good price for a quick sale in the current market. We owe £171k, so hoping we get a price relatively close to asking it should leave us with a small amount of equity, that we could offer a landlord to pay a few month rent upfront.

If we went BR we would be able to keep the house, but frankly we dont want it. The mortgage payments are far to much for us now.

I'll keep an eye out for private rentals, and maybe go view a few properties with agents and then see how it goes from there.

Nenen

We had real problems finding a rental property that would take one very small and well behaved dog and a cat (most wanted at least an extra £1500 deposit and a written agreement to have the whole house & carpets professionally cleaned on leaving) so I'm sorry to say that I dread to think of your chances with a rottweiller! One of the big disadvantages (as far as I'm concerned) of renting is the difficulties if you own a pet. Hard as it might be, I think you should look into rehoming your dog asap.

Regarding finding a rented property, in your circumstances with a young child and baby on the way, have you got yourself on the local council and/or housing association waiting lists? Is your dh in the sort of job that could come under a 'keyworker' scheme? The other place that springs to mind for advice is 'Shelter'... it would certainly be worth giving them a ring, especially if you are likely to be declared BR.

speedtwin

You could try

1. To get a guarentor who will sign a agreement (friend or relative)

and or

2. Pay 6 months up front

3. Offer to pay bigger deposit because of pet

The first two normally swing it for me and I can manage to persuade the Landlord

Lavendyr

tara747 wrote: »

A decent agent should NOT charge just to do a credit check. There may be a small admin fee if you do sign up with them but absolutely do not pay a penny to them at the application/enquiry stage!!

Sorry, but that's just not right at all. In fact, once you tell them that you want to rent a property, the vast majority of letting agents do and will charge an application fee which typically covers the following:

- Carrying out a reference and credit check
- Reserving the property for you while said checks are carried out

The cost of this can vary from £50 per person upwards. While I agree it's a bit of a rip-off given how little it can cost them to process the checks. This is perfectly normal practice.