Advice Needed Yet Again Please

rfdebt

Hi all,

I have bitten the bullet at last and have been looking for rental properties, my mortgage break ends soon and have had no luck in getting a job (past it at 52 it seems!) and not enough money to start paying the mortgage again. My only income is my pensions which amount to around £745; I have some money put aside to enable me to pay a few months rent plus bond upfront plus BR fees. My intentions are for myself and my wife to get into the rental property first and then file for BR.

I know I will be able to claim council tax benefit and local housing allowance which will mean I have to find the excess of £100 for the rent.


I have actually found a property and after visiting it twice, have decided to go for it. It’s not ideal but it’s better than living on the streets!! I have been to the letting agent to collect an application form and it wants all the details of our debts etc prior to credit checking me and my wife.

I’ve told the letting agency that my credit rating is poor and that I could pay three months rent plus bond up front, but they are not aware of how much debt I am in or of my intentions to go BR in the next few months.

Would I be better off to get a guarantor? (my brother would probably do it). Having said that, I think I would still have to fill in those details on the letting application form.

Does anyone know or have had a similar experience on how to deal with this?

Any advice would be truly appreciated, thanks.

Waspeze

If you can get a guarantor it makes things easier... I had a guarantor on my place, got it a few months before BR and haven't had any probs... the landlord/LA are fine as they are "guaranteed" to get the rent regardless of my credit status.

maxmycardagain

have you applied for LA or HA housing? if your home is repo'd (which could take many months) you could get a place, not always great but at least within budget

maxmycardagain

if you deffo want a private let, scan your local paper for the owners ads, when the tight gits wont pay an estate agent to check applicants...

Toon_Dave

rfdebt wrote: »

I’ve told the letting agency that my credit rating is poor and that I could pay three months rent plus bond up front, but they are not aware of how much debt I am in or of my intentions to go BR in the next few months.

Would I be better off to get a guarantor? (my brother would probably do it). Having said that, I think I would still have to fill in those details on the letting application form.

Does anyone know or have had a similar experience on how to deal with this?

Any advice would be truly appreciated, thanks.

hi there. i have recently left mortgaged house and into private rental. i have massive debts really, so BR is rollong on on monday.

i spoke to my letting agents to inform them that the credit reference would be crap etc but they still had to do it. it came back as expected, over £50k in unsecured debt and ccj's etc. ouch i thought.

They spoke with the LL and explained the situation and to be honest they were not that bothered as long as i could pay them the rent etc. i think alot of it was to do with the estate agents.

but anyway i had to pay 6months rent up front for them, i did this and am now in the property. i would have preferred to have paid less upfront as its a but tying just in case but at least have a roof over my head. i have met with the LL and explained my plight, Not about going BR yet but the financial situation and i told him i had paid him the 6months upfront into his account. He wasnt even aware of this so i think it was the estate agent being a bit too upfront.

it worked for me to be honest and upfront with the EA regarding my poor credit as i knew it would come out on the credit searches.

Hope any of that waffle has helped

rfdebt

Hi all thanks for your speedy replies.

Waspeze: Thanks for your message. Yes, I think my brother would be a guarantor for us; least ways I hope so!! I will ring him later today.

maxmycardagain: Thanks for your message. To be quite honest I don’t think we would stand a cat in hells chance of getting a LA or HA property, a couple with grown up and left home kids! This is not meant to offend anyone living in social housing, but the LA housing in the areas where we live is not very desirable if you know what I mean! Additionally, we want to hand the keys to the house back voluntarily sooner rather than later so we can get on with sorting our lives out and file for BR.

We have checked the local ads, but you’d be surprised at how many private ads state no DSS! The properties that “welcome” DSS with the letting agents are not in very good areas either!

Toon_Dave: Thanks for your message.

We have over £90k in unsecured debts, we have not as yet been given a CCJ, but there will be defaults that show up though on the credit check.

If my brother doesn’t want to be a guarantor, we could just about scrape enough to pay 6 months plus bond upfront, although it will mean that we’ll have to delay filing for BR until we’ve saved up for it again! Even if he does, I have said to the letting agency that I will pay 3 months plus bond upfront. Perhaps the agency may accept that initial proposal plus guarantor. That way, we will be able to avoid postponing BR.

So it seems we will have no choice other than to be upfront about the total debt on the form then? Well, I will give it a go, if they say no; it’s back to the drawing board then!!

Good luck with your BR on Monday, I wish you all the best

peachyprice

Hi RF,

On the form standard forms all they ask is if you have any CCJ's and BR orders, they are the real stingers, defaults don't make much difference. As you haven't any yet you should pass the credit check. It's nowhere near as strict as the checks to get credit. If your score comes back over 400 you should be OK.

rfdebt

Hi peachyprice thanks for your message.

We have been defaulted by 8 out of 9 creditors, so we will have to put those down. The actual wording that concerns us (except the criminal conviction part) states:

If you have any CCJs, criminal convictions or have a poor credit history then you must inform us immediately. You should provide us with evidence of any convictions, defaults or CCJs and if you are currently paying off any debts we require sight of the payment plan and payments made so far. If you have been cleared of any debt we require evidence of this. The credit check will highlight all of your background history so it is important to be honest.

So we will have to show them the default letters from creditors which aren’t going to look good are they? I can only hope that our credit scores read over 400! Oh well, what will be, will be I guess!!

Thanks so much again to all who have replied, it is very much appreciated:)

peachyprice

Aw gawd, that's a bit in depth, the ones I saw didn't go into that much detail! But they did say as long as you're honest it should be OK. As an indication my score is 148, that's with BR, 2 CCJ's (even though I only have 1?) and I hate to think how many defaults!

rfdebt

Thanks for that peachyprice,

We'll submit the application on Monday and hope for the best then! Fingers crossed!!

rfdebt

Hi all,

Well (thankfully) my brother has agreed to be a guarantor; the letting agent seems to think we won’t have any problems regarding our adverse credit record, especially as we will be paying 3 months rent upfront plus bond as well as a guarantor. We were totally upfront about defaults from most of our creditors, strangely enough, after checking our files; only 6 of the 9 creditors have actually sent us a default notice!


We should know by the end of the week if we are successful or not (otherwise that’s £150 admin fee down the swanny!!). I am still feeling a little worried of course, hope this week doesn’t drag by too slowly!


Please keep your fingers crossed for us!!