Rental properties - is this normal?

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Partner and I are looking to rent a place together in his town; he currently rents in the area, I own my home 4 hours away. New house is going to be mostly his, I'll be paying about 25% of the rent/bills and staying there about 10 days a month.

Which all sounds fine EXCEPT that the rental market in his town is mental. I check Rightmove every day...call or email agents...and they're not accepting viewings or the houses are already let every time. One went on this morning, I just called and was told they've already closed applications on it!

I have limited experience of the rental market - I helped my partner find his current home, and the one before that, and never had any of this, at that time (2 and 4 years ago respectively) it was a good 2 weeks between him spotting the property online, viewing and signing any paperwork. Now it seems to be happening in hours!

There are about 10 agents in his town; all also seem to be operating a fee system for applications (again, not a thing previously) where they want 150-200 for you to apply as a tenant, which they'll refund within 21 days if you're not successful. Again, is this a thing now?

If all of this is just how it is, how do we actually get a house we want? Clearly somehow others are getting in ahead of us - how do they do it?

At the moment I can't even get us a viewing on any other than 1 which we could go and see (but the agent has already warned me that applications are being made, so it might well be let before we've even seen it!)

Judging by the number of posts on my local Facebook page of people asking if anyone knows of any 2/3 bed properties to rent then I'd say it is clearly the norm in some areas.

There's nothing on OpenRent; most landlords in the area seem to let via agents. I'll keep looking but nothing seems to come up.

You need to register with the agents so they know hat you are looking for and ready to move quickly. Properties here can take up to a week to get onto Rightmove and by then you've missed the boat.

An application fee? This is insane.

My last rental house hunting was 3 years ago and it wasn't like you describe. I've rented in Manchester, London and South Wales and it's never been like that.

It seems very odd that you’re paying towards his rent just for staying over a few times a month

The market is extremely tight at the moment. Lots of landlords have sold due to the stamps discount & there’s also a lot of people going into rented & breaking chains to save their sale.

We secured something this week after a lot of effort. It’s pointless to put your name down with the agents, we did that weeks ago, we’re desirable tenants & are yet to get a call from anyone.

The only thing that worked for us was refreshing Rightmove every hour, calling immediately and taking a day off work at short notice to see some. You can’t afford to wait til the weekend.

My partner can usually be available on the day, unfortunately so far nothing has come up that we can view at short notice - it's either already gone or there's a wait list for viewings.

Maybe this is just the rental market now?

I feel like it would be easier to buy a house than rent one currently!

We advertised one of our rental properties last week and had 13 phone calls that morning. Someone wanted to view the same day and the signed the day after.

Application fees have always been a thing.

I've rented for years. The advice you've received is correct - you need to register with agents. You shouldn't have to pay a fee for this though, I expect you'll find that applies to actually making an application on a property. Though I suppose they might ask you to fill out the application forms and do all the checks etc before you view, so they can filter out the time wasters. If I were I your shoes I'd be going into agents offices, examining your situation and making lots of noise about how quickly you can move and how easily you can find the readies. They'll remember and favour you as a prospective tenant. It's a sad (unjust) state of affairs but unfortunately how it is at the moment.

The market it mad. People are offering above market rents, 6 months rent in advance, all sorts. If you can afford to pay fees in multiple agencies, think yourself lucky. Many people in rented housing don't have spare cash to slosh around like this and market practices and massively stacked against them.

It’s really tough if you want a house at the moment. Everyone wants extra space so you’ve got people still moving out of flats/smaller houses plus the June 30 deadline for sales.

Unfortunately not easier to buy! We’re looking at the moment and it’s so difficult. Currently only 2 houses we like on the market. One went on last Friday and had 6 asking price offers by Saturday evening.

I'll be living there about 10 days a month and working from home there - it's a compromise and step towards living together (because I can't move permanently as yet to his town as I have commitments locally). His current home is too small for us both and there's nowhere for me to work or keep any of my belongings when I visit. Hence moving - and me making up the difference between what he pays now and the additional costs. I think it seems a pretty fair arrangement?

You can add an alert on right move. Which a drawn search criteria map. Sends an email instantly when a news property comes onto the site.

@victopai

You can add an alert on right move. Which a drawn search criteria map. Sends an email instantly when a news property comes onto the site.

you can, but it's likely the property will be gone by then!

@AintPageantMaterial

Round here I believe tenants secure properties by offering more than the advertised rent.

It's happening here, too (Sussex). Which means that people on benefits are absolutely shafted, as local housing allowance rates are already well below market rates and they can't possibly outbid those in work.

We're going to see massive increases in homelessness imo, the recent rises (70,000 households made homeless in the year to Feb 2021) and one of my colleagues in homelessness prevention told me she'd seen a bulletin saying that nationally there were 60,000 NTQs issued but not yet enacted. Staff are totally demoralised because there is so little they can do and they are overwhelmed.

My friend is moving to my area in the next couple of weeks. I got her a rental by putting a shout out on local FB groups asking if anybody knew of a rental coming free. Was contacted by someone whose tenants had just given notice. I viewed it (and took a video for my friend, who couldn’t travel as we were still in lockdown) and then they agreed the rental with the landlord. Never hit the market.

I’m so pleased as it means my best friend will live 2 minutes instead of 4 hours away!

Your plan is fine and sensible. But you need to recognise that the rental market and your plan are not currently compatible.

If you want to find somewhere you need to prioritise that above everything else and go down there and treat it as a full time job for a few days.

Its annoying and frustrating but the reality at the moment

@Shoxfordian

It seems very odd that you’re paying towards his rent just for staying over a few times a month

I agree. It's hard to see how an extra person for a few days a month would make a significant difference to running costs imo.

The market is nuts where we are too (houses and flats). We've actually managed to get in to see one place only to discover that it's a two tier process. The letting agent vets us then we're interviewed by the landlord!

Thankfully no money exchanges hands unless you're formally applying but my stress levels are screaming. We're in countdown of a section 21 (landlord selling) and I'm genuinely concerned we might not have moved because we can't.

We've registered with the council in readiness for that but we have even less chance of a social housing property than we do one of the impossible private lets.

I suspect it's related to the pandemic because it wasn't like this two years ago, my friend got her place without any issue or hoops to jump through.

The additional costs are because it is a bigger property - rent about 200 more per month, a higher council tax band, increased utility costs etc.

Remember if it makes it onto rightmove.co.uk in 99 per cent of cases its because there is a problem with it.

That's a ridiculous thing to say! Simply not true.

We luckily haven’t had to look in the last couple of years, but it was pretty crazy even back then. You’d go to an open house and be one of a dozen families looking around that morning. It’s a bit disheartening.

A few things have worked over the years. Getting pally with the letting agents so that they call you up about new properties. Open Rent is good too. Not many homes on it but often better to contact the landlord directly, as you can ‘sell’ yourself to them as great tenants. Also, we found one of our houses via a local Facebook group. The landlady advertised it on there. So it might be worth joining local groups and asking if anything is available. Oh and Gumtree. Good luck!

That fee isn’t legal! They aren’t allowed to charge that anymore are you sure it doesn’t go towards the deposit for successful applicants?

The fee is 1 weeks rent, so I think as a pp said upthread they are allowed to charge it so long as its refundable.

There's nothing on Gumtree other than 1 bed flats, and it's a similar story on OpenRent actually theres nothing on there currently, but of the let properties on there none are suitable.

I'm up there next weekend so I guess we may have to traipse round the agents and sign up with them (bit reluctant as having looked into this application stuff it seems we have to give them our life story - all personal info, job we do, who we work for, what we earn, why we're moving, which they will then share with a prospective landlord - and IF the landlord thinks we seem ok, apparently THEN we can be allowed to view and get reference checked etc!)

But that process means that if you do see something that you want then the agents know that you can proceed and are viable. Its simply what you have to do if you want to rent.

And in a fast moving market it is true that most places won't make it onto the Internet. Therefore places will only be on rightmove.co.uk if they are not straightforward and easy to rent.

Maybe 'wrong isn't quite the right word, instead it should be not straightforward