What is a tenant ‘Affordability Check’ please?

[0500hours]

I am 56 with an 18 and 16 year old at home.
I was made redundant (no redundancy pay) and then my husband unexpectedly died a week later.

He had no life insurance, pension, savings etc and was in debt on all his accounts. He had a small business but it’s not ‘saleable’

The landlord wants me to come in for an ‘affordability check’.
I’m named on the tenancy, but it’s now gone from 2 full time working tenants to 1 unemployed single mum. They only have employed tenants on their properties.

We’ve been here 9 years and never missed a payment.

Its currently the cheapest rental property on rightmove for this town. We would have to move into a 2 bedroom flat if we had to move (I’d have the front room sofa as my bed so the kids can keep their own rooms).

I guess I’m asking, does anyone have experience or going through this ‘affordability check’.

Thankyou for any replies I am genuinely grateful for help

In the last 7 weeks I’ve gone through redundancy, bereavement, a cancer scan check and now potential eviction from our family home. I’ve had quite a lot to cope with lately but now this has come up and the worst part is the property owner is away for a few weeks so the letting agent can’t give me a definite yet on whether we can stay.

For me it was an income vs. outgoings, they wanted to be sure that I had enough income to cover all the bills and leave enough to live on. I had to have one too after DH died and we went from dual income to single, then I had to do one again when I was accepted for local authority housing.

Do you mind my asking what they asked evidence of? You can private message if preferred.

For example is it just bank statements or do I have to provide a full breakdown of all outgoings and declare any savings etc

Also the fact that I’ve lost my job and am now claiming universal credit makes me worried about the ‘bad old days’ when I remember seeing rental properties advertised as ‘NO DSS’ meaning absolutely no way are we renting to an unemployed single mum when we could get two working professionals instead .

@0500hoursI’m really sorry that you have had so much to bear all at once. One of my volunteers have found Shelter to be helpful with a housing issue he had about a year ago. It may be worth contacting them, if you haven’t already, even if it’s just to clarify what rights you have as a current tenant and what you can expect your landlord to do, and the legal process he/she will have to follow if you don’t meet the affordability criteria. Shelter may also be able to advise you regarding eligibility for social housing too.

I don't think I provided solid evidence as such for my old landlord but we had a good relationship and she knew I had continued to pay the rent even when DH was really sick and no longer earning. They just asked me how much each bill was and they noted it down alongside my income, I think that was more of a tick box exercise for the letting agents rather than the landlord.

With my new home I had to provide one recent bank statements, a payslip as well as how much I paid for utilities etc, they also asked about debts so things like unsecured credit, any accounts that were in arrears.

For mine I had to prove I earned 34x monthly rent. Hopefully yours will be less rigid as you are an existing, reliable tenant.

If your husband was also under state pension age make sure you claim bereavement support payment.

A lot of people don't realise when they are entitled to it.