Credit Checks for Rental??

Crashtogether

I'm about to rent a new flat and the LL wants to do a credit check on me, which she is charging me £40.

I have no idea if this is normal practice or not. I don't really want to pay more on top of what is already a high monthly rental, and I don't have a dodgy credit history anyway.

I am giving her a deposit of one months rental - £600.

Was wondering if any of these options would be acceptable to a LL, instead of a credit reference check;

- A guarantor (but not sure whether she would then want to credit check my guarantor)

- I have a 6 month tenancy - would paying the whole 6 month rental (plus deposit maybe?) persuade her of my financial standing (I have no idea the advantages / disadvantages of paying a whole lump sum up front)

Thanks everybody.

clutton_2

£40 is very low in this day and age. Agencies will often charge several hundreds of pounds per tenant.

"Credit check" is a generic term which usually also includes other things such as referencing, employers reference, previous Landlords reference, Credit check, bank ref (possibly)

A LL needs to be convinced that you can pay the rent - and sadly in this day and age there are more "scam" tenants than ever.

Be as upfront and honest as you can - that always impresses me. Take in bank statements, have the cash for the deposit ready, bring personal references, offer 6 months rent in advance.

equally -do read the sticky thread at the top of this section re tenants rights

A guarantor also needs full credit checking - how will the LL know they can be pursued for outstanding rent if a full check is not done ?

bw

j-baby-scotland

Paid £150 for same (credit check & admin.) at letting agent here in Glasgow.

pnq06

We paid £80 each...

Maybe worth negotiating though... If you think you will fail then be honest and tell her what you are willing to negotiate. We told our agents we might fail and we did fail but we were able to pay an extra 3months rent up front for our honesty

churchrat

clutton wrote: »

A guarantor also needs full credit checking - how will the LL know they can be pursued for outstanding rent if a full check is not done ?

bw

we have stood as guarantor for our ds--have never been credit checked. (prob would not pass one anyway:D)

nomoneytoday

Would they except a £2 experian report and a P60 instead?

lil_me

Personally I wouldn't offer 6 months advance rent without checking the landlord, ask for references from previous tenants etc. I know one young lady fighting to get 7 months rent back, her landlord insisted she paid 12 months up front as she had one CCJ then got himself in a financial mess so having to sell up (BTL mortgage) so she's basically out on her backside as the property is being repossessed. It's rare for this to happen, but I'd be very wary about giving someone so much up front incase anything negative happened without good references.

Most fees are much higher than that, ours certainly were and if we'd needed a guarantor they'd have stuck another £150 credit check fee on aswell (they also insisted the guarantor should be earning 4 times the rent and own their own home)

tbs624

Crashtogether wrote: »

I'm about to rent a new flat and the LL wants to do a credit check on me, which she is charging me £40.

I think your LL is probably being very fair with you and only passing on roughly what the check will cost her. Do a google on Tenant Verify and you can see an example of what the different checks available are & what they actually cost

It is standard practice but many Letting Agents seem to see this area as ripe for profit, and charge anything up to £150 for checks and a similar amount for printing off a copy of a bog-standard AST. Most LLs will also want to credit check a guarantor.

I certainly wouldn't consider paying huge amounts of rent up front. ( And here's a laugh,some police forces are now warning LLs to be wary of Tenants who offer big rental payts upfront - apparently this is a standard practice of those charmers who'll turn a LLs magnolia-painted investment into a lovely warm cannabis farm, before disappearing leaving a redecoration job behind;))

A tenant refusing to be credit-checked will usually sound alarm bells for most LLs, and if your credit record is fine, I think you just have to accept that there is a fee.

I personally would not allow any LL or LA to trawl through my bank statements, unless s/he was also happy for me to take a look at his/her bank/mortgage statements so that I had an idea of whether s/he could keep to his/her side of the bargain

mlz1413

lil_me wrote: »

Personally I wouldn't offer 6 months advance rent without checking the landlord, ask for references from previous tenants etc. I know one young lady fighting to get 7 months rent back, her landlord insisted she paid 12 months up front as she had one CCJ then got himself in a financial mess so having to sell up (BTL mortgage) so she's basically out on her backside as the property is being repossessed. It's rare for this to happen, but I'd be very wary about giving someone so much up front incase anything negative happened without good references.

Most fees are much higher than that, ours certainly were and if we'd needed a guarantor they'd have stuck another £150 credit check fee on aswell (they also insisted the guarantor should be earning 4 times the rent and own their own home)

I thought if you had an AST then the BTL mortgage company had to honor it.
The lender should repossess the property with tenant in it and allow them to stay until it ends.

ruggedtoast

mlz1413 wrote: »

I thought if you had an AST then the BTL mortgage company had to honor it.
The lender should repossess the property with tenant in it and allow them to stay until it ends.

This is a common misconception. One of my friends has been evicted twice after bankrupt landlords had their flats repossessed. The court are meant to give you a minimum of 3 weeks notice to get out but in practice this is often reduced to days due to administrative incompetence.

Otherwise Im afraid on the day of reposession you'll be waving your AST at some very large men with a court warrant and little interest in reading it.

barnaby-bear

mlz1413 wrote: »

I thought if you had an AST then the BTL mortgage company had to honor it.
The lender should repossess the property with tenant in it and allow them to stay until it ends.

And a lot of LLs don't have BTL mortgages or permission to let because they got cheap residential mortgages fraudulently.... in which case it really isn't the mortage companies problem and the tenants cna be kicked out instantly as there isn't a valid tenancy as LL had no right to issue one and the tenants comeback is to sue the often bankrupt LL for their costs...