Renting - will it even be possible? Please help.

[Spottygiraffe85]

I left DH at the start of the summer and we are living with my parents. It’s not sustainable because it’s taking me forever to do the school run in the morning. FOREVER. Ds is 13 and dd is 6 and there isn’t really enough space for us either.

The plan was always that it would be short term and we would rent. A house has come up near where we lived for £900 a month, three bed. It would be perfect.
However I’m not going to meet their referencing terms. I have to be in full time work and paid £27k or more per annum.
DH earns around £170k per annum and I was a sahm for a a few years. I now work 28 hours a week but only earn around £16k.

On my salary plus what DH would need to give me I would have about £2.5k a month (plus UC but I know a lot of rental places don’t like that). £2.5k would give me an annual income of £30k even without the UC but I don’t think they will take that because my personal income is low.
I will also have half the house - £150k ish - when it’s sold or if Dh buys me out. Which means I wouldn’t get UC at that point but would have a good amount in savings. I would probably then look to buy so I only want to rent for 6-12 months.

Am I trapped? DH won’t move out of the family home so it has to be us that finds somewhere.
My dad would be a guarantor but I don’t know if there’s any point me even contacting the estate agents if the terms are all going to be the same.

Also agree with PP you need to push the ex harder to get you up and running for HIS children. If your parents are too old (eg retired already) to be guarantors, make him do it. He's a well paid homeowner with a vested interest in seeing his kids housed... right?

With a guarantor you should be able to rent even with zero income. I’m guarantor on my DDs flat in Scotland and she has no income. (She is SEN so cant work and be successful at university, although she volunteers once a week doing work in her degree field).

@Spottygiraffe85

But they could have to evict anyone at any point couldn’t they? If someone lost their job or something. They’d have twelve months rent up front here and a guarantor. I think also if you met me you’d see I’d not be someone who’d need evicting. If we couldn’t pay at the end of twelve months for any reason I’d leave willingly.

I scared off a letting agent by offering all 12 months up front. They see that as some kind of drug Lord red flag. I did better when I had my DD find a flat, sign for usual terms of deposit plus monthly rent with me as guarantor. I sent in a savings account statement showing substantial funds and that was it, she was approved. She said going to the viewing and meeting the estate agent in person also really helped her case because they were able to see she was serious and responsible.

Thanks.
Their email says don’t even bother viewing unless you can meet these requirements.
Well. It says they won’t even allow you to view.

Well if either you or your guarantor meet the requirements, you meet the requirements imho. Besides they have no way of knowing at that stage. You are new to renting so can always play the innocent.

@Spottygiraffe85 just ring the estate agent and state your case, they can't shoot you for asking, no matter what their email says!

@longerevenings

Most rental contracts are for a year, if you want a shorter contract you might want to look for a specific shorter contract. Friends have used airb&b in those situations but there are also sometimes rentals that are short term.

With the caveat that I’m in Scotland in case it makes a difference.

Even if the contract is for a year our tenants only need to give us one month’s notice if they want to leave, so I wouldn’t get too tangled up about the year's contract. It’s a risk you knowingly take as a landlord

Take the spousal maintenance. Swallow your pride and take it.

Even if you put it aside and give it to dc as a mortgage deposit or a university education in five years time it ten or pay for a wedding for dc in many years time or whatever!

Take the money.

Speak to your lawyer again while you still have a low income and qualify for legal aid and see what the options are. Don’t rule anything out. They can make him pay for a flat if you’re in the house and he’s out. So presumably they can do the other way round too ie when you’re the one that’s out. It will look bad to the courts that you’re overcrowded and dc don’t have a proper place to play study etc while he’s swanning around in a bloody great mansion alone.

Don’t take the “I don’t want to be any bother” route. You have dc. They have to come first and that means you fight for your rights.

It’s not pride so much as not wanting to make an already difficult situation worse.
I.e. I don’t want to upset DH more than necessary.

I really feel for, when I left my xh I couldn't pass credit checks as was self employed and claiming uc, and my dad couldn't as guarantor as he was retired but had also been self employed! In the end I literally cried to the letting agent and paid 3 months upfront.

The rental market is a nightmare at the moment unfortunately, I've been looking to move and coming up against the same obstacles again, I've only managed to find somewhere through a friend who overlooked credit checks.

Having said that, if you're PAYE and have a guarantor also in employment ypu should be OK, just ring agents and be open about your situation

Why do you not want to upset your ex?

Is he scary?

He’s your ex. Upset him. You’re through anyway. He can’t take the kids. You’ve nothing to lose.

Many women do this ‘feeling sad can’t be arsed fighting just want to leave quietly’ shit. And lose out financially. Are you feeling guilty as you left him? Don’t.

You fight. You earned whatever you’re entitled to.

The other way to look at it is if he gets married to someone else and they’re in the U.K. then he dies, she as his wife could get all his money and property and your kids could get nothing. So you and your kids will have very little and she’s got loads.

Your plans for their uni education all gone. Property all gone. Inheritance all gone.

Prenups are not legal either so he can’t do anything to prevent a new wife getting everything if he dies before her.

So you get the money and the assets now and put aside for your kids. This is for them. Not you. Take the spousal maintenance.

If he's a decent father, he won't want to see you struggling as it means his kids struggle.

Where I am places either need you to be earning 3 or 4 times the rent (yeah right) or have a guarantor that does. If your dad earns good money and is willing to be a guarantor you shouldn't have a problem

Ok, so I need to contact and say that:
I can have a guarantor.
I can pay six months plus rent up front or have it held in a client’s account.
And generally explain the situation.

See where it takes me? My total annual income will be more than £27k, including CM. But I won’t be full time working.

Scotland has very different rental laws to England.
Assuming you are in England you can't offer a deposit larger than a months so no holding accounts.

But you can offer a guarantor which will be valued.

You can also offer upfront rent but as a pp says money laundering laws may come into play.
It also leaves the concern about how future rent would be paid.

But you have paid employment and a guarantor which could be enough.

Just get some up to date advice on how you give notice if you don't want to be there for a year.

Good luck with finding somewhere and don't worry about upsetting your exDH. Focus on getting your dc what they deserve.

CM isn't counted in income because its not dependable, spousal maintenance is though as its agreed by a court.

Spottygiraffe85

What will you do Bythemillpond

We had already sold the previous week. Dd took it upon herself to phone anyone who advertised anywhere that did holiday let’s.
I had given up looking when I saw that the only thing in our price range was a field at £1200 per month (no facilities, bring your own tent or caravan) or a clearing in some woods (again no facilities) for £76 per night £2280 per month.

I was even at 9.30am the morning of the move prepared to buy a chemical toilet and put a mattress, litter trays and cat beds down in the back of my van to sleep there or sneak 5 cats into the 24 hour storage facility and make a home there whilst dh, Dd and Ds booked into a hotel)

After around 300 phone calls and 2 solid days of calling Dd managed to get us a months rental about an hour away but that wasn’t available till yesterday and a 2 bed tiny holiday cottage that was 2.5 hours away (it was tight, 4 adults and 5 cats in a tiny 1 storey 2 bedder). £1000 for 10 nights.
The space wasn’t the issue though.

We hadn’t read the reviews.

The only fortunate thing is we do regular flea treatment on the cats.
It was flea infested (literally) 2 bed holiday rental 2.5 hours drive from where our work is (we work freelance and had to turn down work for a couple of weeks because of this move).
We spent our 10 days in this cottage scratching Owner was having none of it and said it was our cats who had brought fleas in.
Problem was the cats weren’t affected and It was us who were doing the itching. It was cleaner after we left than when we arrived. On top of that nothing worked there. No tv, no Internet and no phone signal. The hob was so old and useless it took 40 minutes to heat up beans.

We are now in the 2nd holiday let which is for 1 month.

It is really really lovely and we can’t believe how nice it is for so much less than the nightly rental of the first place.

I would look at the places that specifically do 30 day rentals through Airbnb

Given you don’t have to pay any bills it can work out cheaper or similar to renting.
It obviously isn’t as secure in terms of length of stay but if they take pets and something is available then as a last resort I would go for it as there is no credit checks or guarantors and hoops you have to jump through. They even come fully furnished

Can your ex be a guarantor?