Advice for renting nice postgraduate housing

[malpoet]

My daughter is due to start studying a law conversion course. Her friend is studying a PhD. They want to get a two bed flat together.

DD gets a maintenance grant of 12850 from her firm, and we will give her another 10000 to make up the rest of living costs.
Her friend has a scholarship of around 20000

She is trying to get a nice property for next year. I am prepared to be a guarantor for the property, and meet the salary requirements for that.

They are both very mature, respectful, and clean people. She wants a home, not a room in a grotty student flat. (Which often cost around the same as non student housing!) She could certainly get some references.

She has been refused to view a few properties as she is technically a postgraduate student.

Where is she? Mine has just signed up for a house in Cambridge. I refused to guarantee any rent that wasn't hers as I don't earn enough, so she was told to avoid Joint & Several contracts. They looked at some student properties but wanted something a bit nicer, so went for the professional house share sector instead. They were going really quickly, but they wanted a house for 5, so I imagine 2 would be easier to find. They found one last week and signed up.

I’m a landlord and frequently rent to postgrad and maturestudents. However I always ask for all of the rent up front for students. Might this be an option (gets round income and credit checks)

Do you know exactly how the conversation about her being a student went? If it were me, I'd say she's training to be a lawyer, rather than saying 'I'm a student'.

I found when renting that they were often very quick to tick the 'no students' box, but if you could find a way to frame yourself as something else, that was fine. Weirdly, when I got married midway through my PhD that made a huge difference (I do not recommend this, but it shows how daft the whole thing is).

My DC has had the opposite experience (in London) in year 5+ of medical school, so a similar scenario where they receive a bursary from the NHS and are older/more mature. Landlords who have specifically stated no students have been happy to consider them.

Are they describing themselves as students when they speak to the letting agent? They might have more luck if they say they are a trainee lawyer with X firm and a postgraduate researcher when they request viewings.

She's in Cambridge as it happens! Pretty much as expensive as London, but not quite such a hectic pace of life.

I think she probably did say that she was a postgraduate student. Not sure if she is allowed to call herself a trainee lawyer until she actually starts work in the office.

I wonder if it is worth her friend ringing up and speaking to the estate agent who refused them a viewing? She now knows that she can offer to pay upfront/us as a guarantor.

Well, the lettings agency won't have the slightest sense of whether or not she's allowed to call herself a trainee lawyer, so I wouldn't worry about that! Indeed, she could also say 'training to be a lawyer' if she's worried about the phrasing.

IME lettings agents will just be ticking boxes.

Yep - they are ticking boxes as SarahAndQuack says. I think agents often just hear the word student and the computer says no. They don't actually ask the landlord whether they would consider mature postgraduates who are able to pay rent upfront, have guarantors and good landlord references. However, once they have done a viewing and have met them, they tend to be more invested and will ask the landlord.