Rent rage

[Tangoandcreditcards]

Trying to secure a new rented house. (Private let) and have failed the reference check because DP can't cover "his half" of the rent. Which is ridiculous because he is SAHP and I can more than cover it with my salary. But they will only assess us on a 50/50 basis even though we're a family. (1 DC)

Our options are to (apparently) pay 6 months rent up front or get a guarantor. They are refusing to assess me for affordability by myself.

I cannot comprehend why, when the rent is affordable for us, we are now looking like we could lose this (lovely, ideal) house because of their daft way of assessing us. I queried the logic but they won't budge "it's just the way it is".

I bet we're going to end up paying 6 months up front (which we have in savings) but I'm annoyed that we have to, what if we didn't have it? Why should they get to earn interest on our money? We can't be the only family in the country who has one high/one low earner.

I wonder if it would be different if we were married?

Anyone else come across this? Or have I just come across an unscrupulous and/or ridiculous agent?

[RandomMess]

What would happen if you just rented it in your name or to they insist all adults are on the tenancy agreement? I wonder if it would be different if you were married...

[Tangoandcreditcards]

Thanks for your reply random, I asked if I could have a single tenancy and they said we needed joint. (I guess for the reasons you cite above)

I'm going to ask about whether or not it would make a difference if we were married this morning. I (very deliberately) left marital status blank on their form (I usually like to write IRRELEVANT but was trying not to antagonise!).

Maybe if I say I am single mother and DP is my au-pair?

[EmmanuelWoganberry]

I wonder if it would be different if DP was the main earner as in our situation I am a SAHM and DH is the only earner, we have never come across this even pre-marriage and pre-DC. I don’t know if we are lucky or your agent is particularly awkward

[Dropdeadfred2]

my husband and I rented privately through an agency and they knew he was the wage earner at the time ...it wasn't aproblem. but I think the calculation ess you had to earn at least 3 times the annual rent

[Tangoandcreditcards]

I think the agent might have got a whiff that 6 months rent up front is a possibility so is refusing to revise the affordability assessment. (She has asked for bank statements to prove our savings as "it might help"
with the reference agency.)

I don't quite earn 3 x the rent, but we do when you add on DP's freelance earnings.

[Tangoandcreditcards]

emmanuel - I also wondered that, but surely it's just a computer program that they bung the numbers in and it says yes or no. I really hope it has no gender bias!

It may be that I fall short of the 3x calculation so it then defaults to 50/50. But that's still silly. I know the landlord needs reassurance, but we can prove good savings and good earnings should be enough without stumping up 6 months!

[awsomer]

How frustrating for you! Are you taking to them again today?

[Tangoandcreditcards]

Yes awesomer, I'm waiting for them to speak to the landlord today.

Goodness knows how it's being positioned though. I wish we could be treated like customers with money to spend and not like we're trying to get away with something.

[specialsubject]

how strange.

we had a couple with vastly different incomes, quite ok on the reference checks with the proviso that he (lower earner) was only approved as joint tenant with her.

worked well for several years until they split up, but that's another issue...

suggest asking to speak to the landlord, explaining that you CAN afford it and are good tenants in all other ways.

[MagnificentMaleficent]

Just to let you know, slightly different but when DH applied for our mortgage they refused to lend us an additional amount as I was a dependent, and we have 3 d c so he was treated as having 4 dependents.

I earn a good salary. And we are married. But because I wasn't on the mortgage they wouldn't consider me at all.

Crazy the hoops you have to jump through.

Can you apply alone some way? Basically jump through their hoops on your terms iyswim?

[chocolaterainbow]

That's a really awkward estate agent/landlord you've got there, I'd be wary of paying that much upfront myself, they already have a deposit to fall back on. Can you get someone to sign as a garontour? That's three route I'd try to take in the situation, especially since you know the rent is affordable and so they'd be guaronour in name only really.

[WD41]

Yes, we had this conversation when we applied for our house.

In our situation, DH is the main wage earner and I work part time on a low salary. Our overall income exceeds 3 x the monthly rent though. The letting agency asked whether we would be able to provide a guarantor however, as "what would happen if your DH left you and you were unable to cover the rent"

I was most put out by this - it felt like discrimination against me not working part time, and surely life is full of uncertainty - what if I were working full-time, but lost my job? Also it would have required an additional fee from us to reference our guarantor.

As it turned out, we passed the referencing process anyway and didn't have to provide a guarantor - they said that they had looked at the overall risk and decided that as we were married (so that answers your question there) and had lived together previously, we were low risk (gee thanks) and that overall income sufficed.

Incidentally in our previous rental I was a full SAHM with no income and it was never an issue, they just accepted DH's income.

In your situation, I don't think I would cut off my nose to spite my face and lose the ideal home though. It's totally wrong, but as you have the savings I would pay the 6 months upfront.

Letting agencies are bastards.

[chocolaterainbow]

*guarantor

[Lacuna]

I worry about this. Dp lives at my place atm but we would like to move to a joint tenancy sometime soon. But, whilst we could cover the extortionate market rents between us, I think we're going to run into trouble in reality. I am the main wage earner but don't, on my own, earn x3 the annual rent, while dp earns a fair chunk less than I do. I think we are stuck. It sucks. We could, technically, afford to pay 6 months up front but wtf should we, when we earn more than enough to cover it monthly?

Add that the ridiculous agency fees and massive deposits if you are 'allowed' to take a tenancy, and it all starts to look a bit bleak.

[hereandtherex]

I don't quite earn 3 x the rent, but we do when you add on DP's freelance earnings.

This is the reason. Your partner does not work and the rent is high (more than 30%) relative to your income.

Like mortgage companies, rentals like to see regular incomes.

[specialsubject]

btw I really wouldn't worry about anyone getting interest on your money. Firstly the agent will hold on to it and drip-feed it to the landlord, and secondly no-one gets any interest worth spit on cash at the moment.

[Tangoandcreditcards]

hereandthere he does work, he's not in FT employment. Different. I'm v familiar with financial risk assessments (professionally) so I understand the need to assure income but there is no way we'd have failed on household income instead of assessing us individually vs 50% of the rent.

special you're right, but it's the principle!

To update: we're still waiting to hear if our savings balances (4xannual rent!) will be "enough" to pass us. Tedious.

[OldF0ssil]

I can't believe an agent said "what would happen if your husband left you and you couldn't cover the rent?". Wow. Although what am I talking about. I can believe it. When I was renting I rang up and made an apt to view a place, was shown around and then when I said I received some RA they just couldn't get rid of me quick enough. I had one woman tell me a property wouldn't be suitable for me. I told her 'i can be the judge of what's suitable for me' Wow the cheek of her. let it go

[Serenitysutton]

We have sort of had this a few years ago. I could afford the rent alone but they insisted in credit checking each adult in the property. DH had a bad credit rating and we knew he would fail a joint app but they wouldn't allow me to rent alone and him to be a "guest"

We went elsewhere and it was no problem. This was some years ago though

[Spindelina]

My FIL did sell-rent-buy, and ended up paying 6 months up front. He had just sold his house in London, so his bank balance was pretty healthy! But his income (pension), whilst plenty to live on given that the rent was coming out of the proceeds of sale, was not sufficient. They justified it by suggesting he could blow the money in the bank! er... he could do that with income?! It's all a bit silly.

[specialsubject]

trouble is that no tenant can be evicted until the six months is up, WHETHER THEY PAY THE RENT OR NOT. So there are boxes to tick to ensure sufficient income.

in cases such as those above, the box ticking is not adequate.

as someone else has said, the current system has flaws for both landlords and tenants.

[Spindelina]

I get that there are boxes to tick to ensure sufficient means (not necessarily income - if you've got 400 times the monthly rent in the bank that might be considered enough?). But the "computer says no" attitude is irritating, and indicative of a landlord's market.

[specialsubject]

not necessarily. To get certain insurances these boxes must be ticked.

THAT is what needs changing, but our asleep-at-the-wheel government won't ever notice.

[Spindelina]

Ah, OK - hadn't thought of insurance. Had assumed it was at the landlord's / their agent's discretion.

[Tangoandcreditcards]

I'm v understanding of the box ticking (love a good checklist, me), I'm just still mystified why we were treated as flatmates rather than a household. Perhaps we hadn't racked up a long enough shared credit history (just shy of 3 years).

Anyway, after a lot of avoidance and nonsense the agent told us that my job wasn't secure enough (it v much is) and the landlord had rejected us. Then it turned out they never got around to completing DP's credit check anyway (?), THEN she called us back begging us to approach the LL with the new credit info and she could still get us a tenancy.

Reader, I walked away, it was more hoop-jumping and disinformation than I could bear. Not the ideal house after all if it came with a whole heap o nonsense!