Talk to me about renting

[lisad123]

Sorry about long post but hate drip feeding.

We have decided we need to move closer to my parents as both have had a stroke in the last 18months and can't see things improving. We currently live 25 mins drive away, so not far but travelling back and forth is a pain.

My job (only one afternoon a week), dh job and dd1 school are all in the same town that my parents live.

However, we currently own our house with a small mortgage, (brought at right time). However, dh was dx with cancer 3.5 years ago which means life insurance is an issue and sadly our money has suffered.
Our credit rating isn't great

So hope your still with me.
The plan is to rent, near parents long term after we have sold our house.
If we sell house at current market price we should have a large amount of money left to pay rent, deposits ect.

Would anyone rent to us with poor credit rating if we could prove we have atleast 2 years rent in hand??
What do I need to know? I have never rented and brought my first place at 18.
Tia

[housesalehelp]

have a look on rightmoveetc to see what the costs are - rents have gone up quite alot - if you are prepared to pay say 6 months rent in advance most places would accept that - is there no way you buy in your prefered town? You might be able to get a mortage with garentor - the main problem with renting is that you have much less secruity - your landlord can give you 2 months notice even if you have longer term contract- plus you can't do much with the house etc

[lisad123]

The problem is the town my parents live in is a lot more expensive than where we live (hence why we brought here in first place) the sale of our house wouldn't buy us anything other than a bedsit.

[EmmaNess]

Can you rent out your house instead of selling?

[lisad123]

Could do but wouldn't leave us money for deposits on rental house

[specialsubject]

if you offer 6 months or more rent in advance for the first six months, plus lots of references, you might be able to get over the credit problems. As others point out, after the lease you are in the hands of the landlord, you should always get at least 2 months notice but if he wants to stop renting the place, that's it. However good tenants are very valuable and no landlord wants an empty property.

what happens long term, if you spend all your house funds on rental and have income problems? If the situation is so tight that you can't even fund under £1000 for deposits, I have to say this looks like a bad move. Financial problems do not invalidate leases.

if you do decide to go ahead; examine rental properties as if you were buying them, you will not be responsible for fixes but if they aren't being done, that's a bad sign. Anywhere with gas MUST have a yearly gas safe certificate, and your deposit MUST be put in a protected scheme. A landlord that doesn't care about your credit and doesn't work with a proper legal tenancy is a landlord that won't care about much else.

good luck.

[lisad123]

Thanks, our funds for renting would be fine as the extra money in the house will pay off all debts and we are both working, more than enough to cover rent and bills ect.
We are paying bills, not in any major debts just ccs and one loan but isn't healthy as when i gave up my job fulltime we went to weekly money and its been harder to pay monthly large bills. All are sorted now
Good tips about landlords.

[lisad123]

How can I be sure that they put deposit into protected scheme?

[specialsubject]

you ask about it when you make enquiries - it is a legal requirement. There are three (I think) schemes and both tenant and landlord get a bit of paper with the details and a code to allow you to see the state of the account. If there is a dispute at the end which can't be resolved between landlord and tenant, it goes to the scheme and they sort it out, returning any undisputed deposit to the tenant in the meantime. There are time limits on how long it all takes -when I was a landlord it was 10 working days after the end of the tenancy to resolve any issues and close it all off.

The procedure stops landlord or agent disappearing with your deposit - it is funded either by a fee paid by the landlord or the interest earned on the deposit.

one or two other ideas for a trouble-free time: you should expect your property to be inspected every three to six months, they are not looking for if you do the washing up, but anything wrong with the property that needs fixing. (and obviously just to ensure you aren't running a cannabis farm...) If something does need fixing, even if it is not inconveniencing you, let the landlord know - they cannot do anything otherwise.

as an ex, and hopefully future landlord I hate the cowboys which give the rest a bad name, so don't give your money to anyone who doesn't do things right.