AIBU to think letting agents prioritise their existing tenants

[Lettingagentsaretwats]

And per my username, are twats? Or other expletive of choice?

DP and I have just been turned down for our 15th property in a row. No explanation from the agents, because 'its DPA' .

There's nothing wrong with our applications. We're both professionals with good credit history. We earn more than double the affordability criteria. No pets, children etc. We've been applying solidly since August and nothing.

The only property we were offered was one with DPs current letting agents. Same information for every other application and we've been turned down every time (this is with another 8 or 9 different agents, the ones DP is with have only had 1 house on their books since we started looking).

I understand theres competition, blah blah, but if they're favouring their own tenants then we are basically wasting hours of our time every time aren't we? It takes hours of my life - checking Rightmove, contacting agents about viewings, then having to do a kind of initial vetting JUST to be allowed to view. Then DP has to attend viewings all over the county with little notice because they won't let you apply without an in person viewing. Then theres the applications (one for me and one for DP, so 2 lots every time) which take a good 45 mins to print, complete by hand, scan and email every single time. None of them use online forms.

DP has said we may as well throw in the towel and give up applying unless something comes up with his current agents but as theyve only had 1 house in 4 months it's unlikely. We are both at the end of our tether with it.

The latest place, we would have offered £50 more a month but didn't even get the chance it's just a flat no.

I rented through word of mouth. I wouldn’t have found anywhere otherwise. Professional job for over 20 years.

It could simply be that as you are a couple coming from two separate addresses, it’s fair to assume that you’re testing out living together and will be looking to move out and buy in a couple of years.

Families that want to put down roots are likely to be longer term tenants as they’ll have connections to local schools and amenities.

It’s expensive to find tenants, so if there’s the option of a family hoping to stay for 5+ years with the same level of financial security that you have, the family will ‘win’. Landlords can pretty much take their pick.

I’m also wondering whether the agents are assuming that you’re only going to be renting for a year and moving on, due to bf’s frequent moves (6 in 8 years would seem a lot) and your ability to pay over the odds. The landlord might be looking for longer-term tenants and you don’t appear, at least on paper, to fit the criteria.

It’s a huge pain and I hope it works out for you. 🤞

A further complication I've not mentioned is that I already part own another property (where I live currently). If I buy before I've sold it, I will be opening myself up for CGT liability which would create a further financial issue. If the property is sold or I can get family member to buy me out before I buy somewhere else that makes things much easier, but neither of those options is possible for at least 18 months.

I'm going to have a frank discussion with the agents on Monday and see if I can get anywhere. If I can't get any sense out of them I'm still considering trying to contact the landlord directly with an increased offer/ 6 months rent up front. Worst they can say is no. And after that assuming nothing succeeds I guess we'll have to leave it for 3 months or so, and DP and I will have to resign ourselves to living apart for a bit longer.

Called agents - any issues with our application? Oh we can't discuss it, DPA.

(firstly the regs are GDPR and secondly, it's MY application, of course you can discuss it with me).

Having checked I realised this is the 4th application we've made with these agents - so I politely asked if there was an issue, were we wasting our time applying? Oh no, it's the landlords choice.

Yeah, right. Utterly pointless. Both the conversation and the application process. If we need to be living together to be considered, it's impossible as we can't both fit into DP's current place - besides which the tenancy is in his sole name. I would have thought our earnings, professional roles, and offer to pay 6m upfront would help, but seems we're wasting our time.

Is there anything in your applications that could be off-putting to a potential landlord? I don't mean inaccuracies but you personal information. Landlords have their prejudices, some legal some not.

For example they can't legally reject you because you have a "foreign-sounding name" but could reject you because you are self-employed and your partner is a binman. One job is insecure, one low-status. Another landlord doesn't trust anyone who is a lawyer, another refuses people who work for letting agents because he thinks they're twats.

I think the data protection thing comes in because although it's YOUR application it's not your decision that meant you were rejected. If they told you the reason you were rejected you might make a legal claim against them. If they don't tell you, it's much less likely.

A large part of it is supply and demand though. Any half-decent property will have dozens of applicants, many of whom would be perfectly acceptable tenants. Only one can get it though - the one the landlord thinks is the safest bet.

If they said, no issues we can see with your application, but the landlord preferred another applicant, well to an extent so be it.

However for this particular property we were told we were the only viewer (it was v bad weather on day of viewing, and the agent at the property told DP 'everyone else' had cancelled). And of course, no viewing means you can't apply supposedly. So whilst I can understand they might prefer another applicant over us if not on financial grounds then due to other prejudices relating to a perception of our nationalities/ occupations (or rather mine as I have a slightly foreign sounding name and work in a professional field that divides opinion - although generally in this context people would associate it with good earnings/ fiscal responsibility) the fact remains if we're the only applicants they've not chosen someone over us but dismissed us out of hand.

And it comes back to are we wasting our time? If every landlord is a massive racist/ xenophobe (which is ironic because I am despite my name as white and British as they come) then clearly yes, we'll never get anywhere!

Have you posted about this before? Sounding familiar to this one: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4391021-to-not-get-why-Im-being-turned-down-for-rental-properties?msgid=112150608#112150608

Sorry to say but yes they do.

Current tenants are already reliably checked and represent a safe revenue income to the business. But its also affected by a high demand right now.

I know its frustrating and I'm sorry. Is there any way you can push DPs letting agent yo work a bit harder for you? They'll obviously want to keep him as a tenant.

just returning to this thread, as I did hear again from the agents (the person I spoke to on the Monday had given a generic response but kindly offered to get their colleague, the 'Lettings Manager' to call me about my application as they could understand my concerns).

Lettings Manager never called but instead on Christmas Eve sent a rude 1 line message saying simply ' landlords don't have to give reasons for turning you down'

Twat.

What I find more puzzling is that the property is still available. I got a friend to call up today and they confirmed it wasn't let. So we've not been turned down in favour of someone else, we've been turned down full stop.

Am I missing something here?

You’ve been. Marked as a pain in the ass now by that agent basically. Rightly or wrongly your not taking no for an answer silently has got their backs up. Question is now what sway do they have with other agents in the area.

A lot of estate agents have friends or friends of friends who work for other agencies.

If we are 'marked' it must've been before this - but I can't think how or what we could've done. We'd not in any way been unduly persistent with this agent previously, viewed several properties with them and applied (and been turned down) for every one.

I have to say it does feel personal somehow.

I’d stick with other agents now. I don’t know your area but it seems to be cooling here now. The house next door has been having viewings since early December and still available, another one of that landlords properties is about to come up for rent and so is ours.

Next door has actually had to reduce its price since two other houses came up on the same street for less rent.

I think there are signs of this - a place near DP (basically same as his, so not one we'd be interested in) went up in early Dec and is still available, when in Sept/Oct that would have gone let agreed within a week. Nothing's come up recently that would be suitable for us (other than 2 other houses with this same agency we'd rather avoid).