Any letting agents on here who can advise me?

[TheDogHasFarted]

Will I be able to rent a property, when I don't have a job?
I need somewhere for about a year and can pay the rent in advance and leave a sizeable deposit, thanks to an inheritance, but I'm worried I'll get turned down due to not being employed currently. So I can't provide a reference from my employer and I also can't provide a reference from a former landlord because I'm moving out of my marital home, which is jointly owned with STBXH.
I will get a job ASAP, but being the wrong side of 50 with no recent experience, its not been an encouraging process so far.
Are there any letting agents on here who can advise me please?

As a landlord I’d bite your hands off if you paid the full year rent up front - I’d go into local letting agents and explain your situation. Your age alone makes you a good prospect as a tenant in a small flat (my tenants are usually young professionals who don’t always look after a place very well).

Paying a year up front is OK, but what happens then? How much capital do you have? As a landlord that's my question.

The RRB that comes into force in a few months will mean you're not allowed to pay rent up front, although I've heard there may possibly some amendments to it, but I would check it out beforehand

The Reform Act prevents landlords REQUIRING rent upfront - it doesn’t prevent them them for accepting rent in advance if offered. I’ve done this for tenants where eg they are foreign students or self employed and therefore no references. It works well - gives the tenant peace of mind ans the landlord guaranteed income for the duration of the lease term

After a year I hope to have capital out of the sale of the marital home, to be able to buy my own property. If not, I'll have to move in with my mother.

Unfortunately as a landlord I wouldn't offer you a property, as you are too short term. A lot landlords like me prefer longer term tenants.

Offering a years rent upfront will help, and advising you are receiving the proceeds from the sale following divorce, but I'd avoid saying you will be buying.

It's hellishly difficult for ordinary people to rent and not improved by the upcoming laws. I'm afraid they will exacerbate an already difficult market into making low earners/no earners pariahs.

I was in this situation when I got divorced and I couldn't pass the credit check and I was on £35k as well as having over £100k in the bank. I had to move into air BnB until I found a private landlord who was happy to do without a credit check, friend of a friend.

Look at the OpenRent website and also Spare Room, yes it could mean a house share for a while until you've got a wage. My ds moved areas to start a new job, so didn't have a job history or references, he rented a room for 3 months and then was able to rent a house after that.

I did pretty much exactly the same thing a few years back, along with two kids and pets and had no difficulty renting.

Wow, that's sobering news

That is great to know, thank you 💐

Unfortunately the market has changed a bit in the last 4 or 5 years with more and more landlords selling up so there is a supply issue in many places but not all.

Thanks, I've had a look at Open Rent and it looks a really useful place to start. I'm not sure about renting a spare room though <shudder> 😂(I lived in shared houses when I was younger and definitely don't miss the "whose turn is it to clean the toilet? who has stolen my bacon from the fridge?" etc discussions😃) but I will have a look at that too. Thank you for replying.

I can believe this. We had new neighbours move into the tenanted house near us and they came round to introduce themselves and said they were very happy to have been "picked" to have the house. It sounded like they almost had to audition for it.

Lol, I know what you mean, some of the spare room ones are more like annexes in someone's home (my ds couldn't stand the thought of sharing but ended up in a house where the other person was away 99% of the time, so it worked out ok)

Be careful of scammers on Openrent.

If a landlord accepts a whole year's rent in advance, it makes eviction more difficult if eviction is necessary. Also there would usually be a rent review every 6 months.

My friend has this arrangement too. She is divorced, professional and likes having someone living in the annex of her house. She would happily have someone like you to stay.
She reads local Facebook pages, where people in the community may be reaching out or through word of mouth/friends of friends.

Thanks but I wouldn't be hoping to be evicted

Of course not. There is still such a thing as non fault evictions though, if landlord wants to sell, move in or move a family member in e.g. so it may not be a good deal from the landlords point of view.

I'm not a landlord

Neither is correct. The majority of landlords have a yearly rent review clause and I've never seen a contract with a 6 monthly rent review.

A tenant cannot be served a valid section 21 notice to expire during a fixed term.
A s8 notice could be given for rent arrears during a fixed term except we're talking about paying a years rent upfront so it's irrelevant.

Some contracts have a 6 month break clause but it's unlikely a landlord would want to use it if they have 12 months rent upfront. Why would they?