to think trying to rent anywhere atm is a nightmare?

[houserentalhell]

I really don't think I am BU, am at the end of my tether tbh!

We've been trying to find a bigger property for the last 2-3 months. I'm now checking/ refreshing Rightmove every hour to see if anything new has come on, checking Open Rent a few times a day (currently only 3 properties within a 20 mile radius on Open Rent so not worth checking more often).

About once a day a possibly suitable house comes up on Rightmove. So I call Letting Agent immediately to try to get a viewing (as you can't apply for anything without viewing first).

Some the viewings have already 'closed' - 5 mins after it goes on Rightmove! Or they want to do pre-viewing vetting, which we may or may not pass.

Assuming we make it past that hurdle, we then arrange and attend viewing. Typically in a procession of 10-15 other couples . Tha can be up to an hour out of your day.

What comes next? An application form of anything up to 15 pages. Copies of driving licence, passports, utility bills, 3-6 months payslips, literally the entire kitchen sink. This can take maybe an hour each time. Possibly also a Zoom or Skype call with the agent so they can 'validate' your identity.

And you're competing against those other 10 people, so it's no surprise when a week later you get a call saying I'm sorry you've not made it to the next round of reference checks and application fee.

So then it's back to more viewings, more time to attend these and do the applications and all for no real benefit. And trying to attend 3-5 viewings and complete full applications each week is becoming a job in itself.

We're completely disheartened by this, if we're competing against 10 or more for every property how will we ever find anything? Tempted to give up and try in the New Year but not convinced it will be any different then, this just seems to be how it is now (was a different story when we last moved pre Covid).

Once you are identified and on the books of an agent lots of those steps can be avoided to be fair but yes it is very difficult right now.

There is a huge lack of supply due to tax changes making it less desirable to be a landlord and coupled with the stamp duty holiday a lot of casual buy to letters got out of the game. Add to that a huge increase in demand, salaries going up and people splitting up due to lockdown pressure and you have the perfect storm

that really doesn't seem to be how it works here, they can't retain any details from previous enquiries due to GDPR etc so the whole application process is always from scratch each time and just takes so long.

It's frustrating also as we don't know the criteria that the landlords have, we don't smoke or have pets which is usually in our favour, but beyond that no idea. It just seems such a lottery, at least when you're applying for a job you can ask for feedback. I asked one agent why we didn't make the viewing shortlist (left my name and number about 10 mins after it went on Rightmove, so really couldn't have been much quicker) and he couldn't even tell me.

Well clearly they are retaining details if the houses are gone after being on Rightmove for 5 minutes. You have to register with the letting agents to get a first look in

I really feel for you @houserentalhell. Very frustrating.

We also have agents (S.E) who will keep you on a list and if anything comes up that looks like a good match, they'll contact you. They generally cherry-pick 5 or 6.

You're ideal tenants with no smoking or pets. Is your credit score good? Any CCJ's? Decent income to pass the minimum required? Any social media posts that would put a prospective LL off e.g lots of drinking/parties etc? Do you have to give a lengthy notice?

It might be worth waiting until December as a lot of people don't want the upheaval around Christmas?

This seems very area specific— particularly bad around Bath where we used to live before moving abroad and it seems many ‘nice’ areas within 2 hours of London or just out of Manchester etc. Part of this is the feeling of people that they can work from home — I think some rude awakenings may happen on that front— Bath for instance has really shit internet apart from just a couple of areas and I know of companies who said home working was fine and are now insisting 2 days in office- (and suddenly if you’ve moved a good way out you get hit with £75 returns each time on train or long drives)

Any social media posts that would put a prospective LL off e.g lots of drinking/parties etc?

How the feck would a landlord or a letting agency see my social media?

@houserentalhell

that really doesn't seem to be how it works here, they can't retain any details from previous enquiries due to GDPR etc so the whole application process is always from scratch each time and just takes so long.

It's frustrating also as we don't know the criteria that the landlords have, we don't smoke or have pets which is usually in our favour, but beyond that no idea. It just seems such a lottery, at least when you're applying for a job you can ask for feedback. I asked one agent why we didn't make the viewing shortlist (left my name and number about 10 mins after it went on Rightmove, so really couldn't have been much quicker) and he couldn't even tell me.

He couldn't tell you as by telling you he would disclosing information about the successful renter. Eg. they work in x field. They have paid a year upfront. So the same GDPR that you mentioned prevents him saying why someone else was successful where you weren't

So the same GDPR that you mentioned prevents him saying why someone else was successful where you weren't

Which ironically makes it easier for landlords to discriminate without being caught! They can do things like look at the names of applicants and assume gender, race and all sorts.. it grinds my gears, I am so glad I managed to get a nice landlord who I know personally

@Funnylittlefloozie

Any social media posts that would put a prospective LL off e.g lots of drinking/parties etc?

How the feck would a landlord or a letting agency see my social media?

We were given a choice of two prospective tenants. I'm not on any of the most popular SM sites myself but a very quick Google and dig around revealed photos that indicated a lot of house parties and also a charge of assault by the woman.

Unfortunately even though it was years ago, if you're comparing two identical people on paper it sometimes boils down to a judgment (rightly or wrongly) from a Google search.

There doesn't seem to be any process of registering any more, I have asked and they just say phone us when you see anything on Rightmove and if there are any viewing slots we'll try and get one for you. Not sure what more we can do!

@Crikeyalmighty that's a really good point about internet, we both work at least part of the time from home so need decent broadband, we've had to rule out a few places instantly because the service is so slow - one place that was in the centre of town (so not even rural) only offered speeds of less than 4Mb! As soon as I spot somewhere the right size and budget I check the broadband speeds because if we can't work there it's pointless.

DP doesn't use social media, I rarely do (and only Facebook plus my privacy settings are fairly high, not that I ever post anything contraversial). No CCJs, we meet the affordability requirements and have been in current place for several years so we're pretty stable, low demand tenants.

I hope something will come up eventually if we don't get too disheartened and give up, but it would just be nice to know why we've missed out or what it is that we can't offer. We were looking to be settled in a new place by Christmas, now we're wondering if we'll have something even in 6 months, or is there always going to be someone 'better' than us?

Where are you in the country @houserentalhell? Are you in a city or large town?

I feel your pain OP! We have currently circumnavigated the madness by taking an air bnb on a monthly basis when our lease here is up to give us some breathing space in the new year when (hopefully) everything might be slightly less mad.

Every agent I spoke to was talking about 100 people applying for every place and how many months rent could we pay in advance?!

I am also a landlord, and when my place went up earlier in the year it was snapped up in under 24 hours (I think mainly because I allow pets).

Air bnb price is much the same as market rent and includes wifi and a garage to store our furniture in, it turns out we have a vague connection to the landlord as well so they've been really accommodating. We've been quite lucky I think, but it could be am avenue to explore for a couple of months whilst you look for something more permanent?

Good luck!

We're in the Midlands, we're looking in a fairly large search area which includes several towns as well as some rural areas. The main restriction is the broadband, we can't go too rural due to that. There's probably about 20ish properties in our search area of all sizes and costs added to Rightmove each day, most are too small, then there's the ones that are too expensive (usually also far too big), a few which get ruled out for location issues, broadband, lack of parking or other things like no gas/oil central heating or double glazing. Which leaves 1 or maybe 2 each day.

Our current place is not ideal but it'll do until something else comes up. Its also relatively cheap compared to the current market where everything seems £1-200 dearer than a year ago.

I’m in the Midlands too… rents here are £300 - £400 more a month than they were before. I have friends who are massively struggling to find anywhere they can afford to move to, and when they do, there’s so much competition.

I think a lot of people have sold and gone into rented around here, which probably hasn’t helped. The student accommodation around town is largely empty, and the actual rentals are going at record speed.

I have no idea when it’ll slow down, but the only way to get anything around here appears to be to be registered so the agent calls you before it goes on Rightmove. If they’re not bothering to do that where you are, I guess it’s just a case of keeping trying and hoping to be in the first few viewings so you stand a bit of a chance…

It sucks. Best of luck to you.

We had our rented home put on sale over a year ago we then spent 5 months trying to find a property . It was probably the worst time of my life and mentally I'm still not over it . Needless to say we are now saving to buy .

Keep going something will come up but I do advise getting yourself out of the renting trap .

Your chance will come OP. It does sound like you may need to stay put for a bit longer though. At least your LL doesn't need you to leave.

You may already have a decent contact but it often helps to build a rapport with a local agent if you can?

Drop by to see them face to face. I've had the agent say "we've had a really lovely couple come in today" etc etc. I'm sure it makes a difference. No harm to try if you haven't actually sat down with them. Very often they remember you more readily if you've been to their office rather than at viewings?

Our plan hopefully is to buy somewhere in 2-3 years as we'll be significantly better off by that point. We could just about buy now but would only be able to afford somewhere similar to where we are now (which is too small hence needing to move). I know its only s short term problem but its just frustrating not knowing how to give ourselves a better chance of getting a rental in the meantime.

When I was flat hunting last year I put together a PDF of all the documents they usually ask for. On the first page I did a short summary of our situation (salary, jobs, no smoking etc)

I contacted agents by email and attached the document so they could see immediately what our situation was. I was able to get a lot of viewings and found a flat quickly (although that was very lucky!)

If you're just calling and leaving your name and number, you're not going to stand apart from the hundreds of other people calling. If you can make the agents job easier by showing right away you're an appealing tenant, they're more likely to call back.

I'm finding the opposite, I can't find anyone to rent my property! Previous tenants who didn't pay rent for 6 months have finally left but now I am finding it difficult to find new tenants.

Hope you find something soon OP x

Yep, thank the government for making being a landlord a shitty non affordable business.

Hiking taxes, taking away or threatening to do so any form of control over eviction, making the process of repossession even longer.

Penalties for everything at a hefty cost. Being a landlord is really not appealing and many have made the most of the property price hike.

Such a pity that it is now leaving people who have no choice but to rent in such precarious situations.

YANBU it's an absolute nightmare. I think part of our problem is we're being nudged out of the family home territory because more people need more room to work from home so those precious well proportioned 2 double bed places or 3 bed places that are needed for a family of 4 are being snapped up by more desirable (on paper) childfree professionals who just want a bit more space.

We've also seen loads of 3 bed+ properties refuse to house children which feels wrong on so many levels (taking a family size property out of the family market entirely - at least landlords who let to families aren't causing that problem even if they're driving up the local property prices)

Best of luck, I'm beyond glad we've secured somewhere and thankfully it appears that the landlord is a happy landlord so hopefully we can see out our eldest with their GCSEs at least before enduring this madness again!

I feel your pain, we have just moved to Shropshire but were looking within an hour of Wolverhampton. We were going on waiting lists and submitting applications just to get a viewing, I’ve never known anything like it!

In the end we had to offer a years rent up front (had to ironically get a loan for this) as one agent said 6 months offered up front was becoming standard.

It was most stressful few months, my heart goes out to you

Sorry @GivenUpEntirely we are one of those couples (we're looking to move from a smallish 2 bed to a larger 2, or 3 bed) although so far I think we are losing out to families rather than other couples. I think it really depends on the landlord. Those who are doing it as a business (like our current landlord who has about 10 BTLs locally) just go with whoever offers the highest/ looks lowest risk whereas others might go for families etc if the house was previously their family home or id they perceive a family more likely to stay for 3-5 years rather than 1-2. Who knows? Glad you found somewhere though - moving the 2 of us is bad enough, I can't imagine the stress of having children involved.

We've also seen loads of 3 bed+ properties refuse to house children

I know it's hard to prove discrimination, but is that actually legal? That is, discriminating against a renter due to their family situation.

@tiutinkerbell not in Essex area are you? we have 3 weeks to find somewhere! 😩