Can an 18 year old rent a flat?

[Freshstarts23]

DD wants to move out, for a variety of reasons I think it’s probably for the best. I know I’m probably being unreasonable but we are where we are.

But is it possible, Will landlords accept her? I’ve no experience of renting. She has a full time job.

Well she’s an adult so yes she can rent. £1800 take home pay is decent for her age as well.

Because you have a council house, has she got a false sense of how much private rent is

Right, like I say, I wasn't asked.
Anyway, she's settled and doing incredibly well, still with the same boyfriend, in the same flat.

I think she’s expecting around £1000pcm rent maximum.

Dd's flat was £450 four years ago for a two bed with loads of room.
We don't all live in London.
It's no doubt gone up but her BF has graduated now and working, she will in 3 years.
Obviously the op's daughter is doing it on her own which makes a difference, but young people can manage, especially in cheaper areas.

Shes never really bothered to ask about my rent. But she’s been looking on right move so has a rough idea of what 1 beds are going to be.

Thank god someone mentioned this - I felt like I was going to burst something 😁.
The poster who stated so confidently that only rich 18 year olds rent by themselves , has probably only ever lived in London and has never heard of social housing 🫣.

3 years ago you could rent a 3 bedroom house for £1000-1200 here but now it’s £2000, so it’s probably gone up in your area too. I’m outside of London

Another thing she said, and it’s only just dawned on me that it absolutely won’t work, is that she would move out of London for cheaper rent. I said what about her job, she said she’ll get a new one. Clearly this won’t work as she can’t take on a flat and give up her job simultaneously. So kind of means she needs to be in travelling distance of work and would potentially need to factor in travel costs.

Sorry, just thinking out loud here.

Haha. Just to clarify though, most of London is made up of social housing. Mixed in with the rich people 😉

Sorry @TastesLikeStrawberriesOnASummerEvening I only quoted yours because it was the reply to the op and you said you didn't know. I wasn't having a go.

Oh I assume it has gone up here, I haven't asked her, but her Bf now has his Masters and is working so their circumstances have changed, financially for the better, as will Dd's when she graduates.
Tbh, I think luck was on their side with their flat, but they were prepared to look outside of the popular student areas.

I think if it wasn't London or the outskirts it would be a lot more feasible, where I live in the East Midlands, one bed flats are about £600 so perfectly doable. Is her job easily transferable as she mentioned getting another job

I think it means annual take-home must be more than 30x monthly rent. So taking home £12k per year, £1,000 per month after tax, NI & pension.

I'm talking about Glasgow BTW, not London, and a part with a not great reputation, but perfectly fine for them now, it's why they managed it and got a two bed which gives them a study, great for Covid/WFH.

Nice

She will have to pay council tax as she isn't a student, but she will get a 25% discount. she will need a guarantor as well, and have to pay a deposit.

I was wondering if they do affordability checks.

Yes they do. They also want the guarantor’s proof of income.
Most first year students are in halls and university manages halls don’t usually ask for a guarantor, but second and third year students need a guarantor.

DD is 23, but has lived in different students housing for the last three years. Although she earns enough to pay rent they still want a guarantor because she has only lived in each rental property for a year.

I suspect that posters saying they rented at 17/18 aren’t aware of how much the rental market has changed since they first rented. Rental properties are in short supply and it is very much a landlord’s market. They can be far more choosy about who they want as tenants.

It doesn’t look like she’s going to have much luck getting her own flat. She won’t hear of it, so I’ll have to let her figure it out for herself but it’s looking like she’ll need to find a house share.

They know everything at that age, she'll figure it out.
I'm kinda glad mine sort of fell on her feet because she was a horror then!

It will also depend on the type of landlord.

When I was 18 (10 years ago) I moved around 2 hours away from home to Bournemouth. I got my own 1 bed flat for £650 per month and at the time I was a HCA earning, iirc, £18k plus unsocial hours. Don't get me wrong, I had very very little at the end of each month but I made it work. I also changed jobs when I moved there but as I stayed with the NHS, it was a straight move. I just provided the letting agents with my signed contract of employment for the new role.

However, the things to note there are that renting was miles easier and cheaper (though your DD is on more than I was), I rented in a place where there was an abundance of properties, I had a fixed contract (0 hours is tricky - though some will take 6 months payslip and a guaruntor) and honestly I'm fairly sure working in the NHS gave me some credit. Also, I rented from a landlord who had 80+ properties. They weren't a couple renting out their other home and totally reliant on that money. Which I guess made them more lax with regards to who they rented to.

It wasn't easy by any means and I definitely had a learning curve and a half. But I had a really supportive family and the odd £20 tesco voucher in the post really helped me out.

In todays market, she'll likely find it quite difficult to find somewhere, but not necessarily impossible depending on the area.

I'd suggest possibly looking on OpenRent as I found the lack of estate agent helpful at the beginning (though did end up renting off rightmove).

Best she can do is enquire. If she finds somewhere then she'll likely make it work and eat a lot of beans on toast. It's all experience! If she can't find somewhere then it may help her lower her sights to a house share. I imagine she'll find it easier to adjust to that idea off her own back rather than being told she can't do it.

I wish you luck!!

Just let her sort it out and work it out herself.

It's good that you've done some research of your own, but at the end of the day let her go out into the wild and find it all out for herself.
Tell her you'll always be there to support her.

My 20 year old is on £26k. He has ended up renting a room within a HMO and even that was slightly difficult.

If he had wanted his own flat, we were told by every agency that I had to be a guarantor, and I had to be a homeowner myself

In theory yes of course she could but any landlord would want a guarantor so you'd need to identify someone willing to do that. Either that or she'd maybe need to save a double deposit on top of first months rent in advance and offer that as an alternative which some landlords might accept. I would sit down and do the maths with her. Get her to budget out rent/electric/ heating/ Internet/ TV licence/ phone bill/ food and household amenities costs and see what she's left with at the end. Then I'd suggest a flatshare with other young professionals and see what she could be saving each month once the overall costs are split 3/4 ways.

Do you think she has the living/ budgeting/ self management skills to move independently and it go well? If not there are some charities who would oversee flatshares between young people and help them navigate living on their own for the first time but I'm not sure what's available in your area. Might be worth looking into?

I'd also explore with her how she'd manage things like visitors. Most young people at 18 still see their family home as 'home' and there's a good chance they'd see her flat as a place to party and get away from their families boundaries and that could make it hard for her to manage visitors.

I haven't rtft but I'm guessing from what you've said things are maybe difficult between you at home and that's why you think she'd be best moving out- I'm maybe wrong. If this is the case would mediation or trying to agree a contract between you with equal input help her sustain living at home and actually make savings? Presumably she'll need to save up for rent etc and furniture etc before she could move out never mind how long it might take for her to get a place.

Another option is maybe lodging? I did it for a few years in a self contained flat at a family home. All we shared was a garden and it was much cheaper and was fully furnished.

She's an adult and earning a decent amount so yes, she can rent.

The reality is though that she's unlikely to get somewhere because of the number of applicants on rentals at the minute - but if she's old enough to move out, she's old enough to face up to a change in plans if she doesn't get any of her rental applications, ie, start to consider house shares or even people just letting out a room of their home.

This one might have to be a "learn the hard way" for her.

Not all landlords demand a guarantor, I’ve had two consecutive rentals where they were willing to forego this. And there are professional guarantor companies who charge a percentage or a fee to be your guarantor if you do need it.
also deposit schemes exists.