Returning to U.K. - how to prove income for rent?

[Ozgirl75]

We’re coming back to the U.K. and obviously our salary has been paid in Australian dollars as that’s where we live. We’re applying for rentals and we’ve seen one we like but the agent has said referencing might be difficult as they can’t look at overseas income.
So, if you’ve moved back to the U.K. and rented before, how have you proved your income going forward? When we moved to Australia we simply provided a copy of an employment contract and that was that.

do you have a guarantor? usually a homeowner can help with this, can be hard to find one though.

Do you have employment sorted in the Uk?

Do you have jobs lined up? In which case use those salaries, if you don't could you show them proof of savings(

I’ve had this a couple of times - the first time I just showed my employment contract that was starting and the second I showed a copy of my bank account with savings that covered the rent for 12 months.

Yes, we’ve got jobs - we run our own business over there which has more than enough in its bank to cover the rent for a year and we earn enough each month to cover the rent easily.
The agent is saying that they have to do a reference and only U.K. bank account statements will work, and ours are Australian.

We don’t have a guarantor - we’re in our 40s and earn more than all our parents, who are all retired now.

We’re looking into whether the company itself can be the tenant and pay the rent as then it would pass the credit check and that payment would just become part of our salary and be taxed in the normal way.
This seems convoluted though! I asked the agent what they normally did for people who were moving back and she said they normally paid 6 months in advance. I can’t believe this is quite right though, surely showing that you have the means to pay should be sufficient.

It's very common to pay 6 months in advance, if they will take that I'd do it.

Yes, we’ve got jobs - we run our own business over there which has more than enough in its bank to cover the rent for a year and we earn enough each month to cover the rent easily.
The agent is saying that they have to do a reference and only U.K. bank account statements will work, and ours are Australian.
We don’t have a guarantor - we’re in our 40s and earn more than all our parents, who are all retired now.

Well, presumably, you're going to have to get a UK bank account, and transfer your savings to that, and have your salaries paid into that too.

Is your plan to continue to operate an Australian business, based in Australia, from the UK? Where will you pay your taxes?

If you've got enough in the business account to pay the rent for a year, why don't you just pay 6 months rent upfront?

Seems like an obvious solution.

We’ve got a U.K. bank account but we only use it for expenses and things.
It’s a U.K. business, in the U.K. and we will pay tax in the U.K. In Australia we just have a holding company.
We can pay 6 months rent but we don’t really want to - we have to do other things like buy cars and furniture and we don’t really want to tie up that much money in one go.
Anyway, I’ve suggested we just show the employment contracts and bank statements - we’ll see what they say. I think maybe because it’s not in London they haven’t come across this very often.

Only way sometimes is to offer a year upfront.

We gave them employment letters from our new jobs showing start date and salary. We gave them bank account statements past six months and showing savings. We paid first 6mos up front.

When my Mum came back, she paid 3 months in advance. When we came back, it was paid through DH's company as we had no personal credit history. Contract was later transferred to us personally. This was in Derbyshire.

The business you'll be running in the UK is the same business you've been running in the UK from Australia?

Thanks for your messages. I wonder what people do if they don’t have 6-12 months worth of rent in savings freely available?!
Moving to Australia, a country we weren’t even citizens of, was way easier than moving back to the actual country we were born in 😆

Yep

Sorry that was to @DogInATent

And @Okki thats reassuring as that’s basically what we want to do.

We had to pay 6 months rent upfront. That seems very standard now if you've been out of the UK and can't pass a standard credit check because everything is overseas. This is in London.

I would suggest just accepting you will probably have to do this and then be pleasantly surprised if you don't. Nobody wants to do it but you are lucky that at least you can.

I'm not sure you know how insane the rental market is here, you might have a very tough time if you refuse to do it.

I used to rent to foreign students through an estate agency and it was not an issue - the agency had them pay six months up front (for a six months renewable lease). It wasn't a student flat in particular.

Would they accept employment letters if you are self employed? So presumably, the business you own is guaranteeing that it employs you. I can see why they'd find that difficult to use as a guarantee.

I think you'd have to offer UK bank statements showing that you get paid a certain amount per month, and have done for xx months.

You say you're in the UK now, and that your UK bank account is only used "for expenses and things". What account do your salaries get paid into? What money are you using for living in the UK at the moment? What "expenses and things" come out of your UK bank account? How long have you been in the UK, and are you paying income tax here? That would be a good demonstration of a regular salary.

TBH, it does all sound a bit fishy - although you may not have given us the full picture!

we run our own business over there which has more than enough in its bank to cover the rent for a year and we earn enough each month to cover the rent easily

Assuming you are going to close the Australian arm of the business down now that you're resident in the UK, transfer that money to your UK bank account, and bob's your uncle.

So what's your problem proving income?
You have historic accounts demonstrating the business income in the UK, and nothing is changing except your residence.

There is no "overseas income" problem to overcome. You ran a UK business with UK income and repatriated the income to Australia. Unless you were doing a fiddle to avoid paying tax in the UK on the UK income, there shouldn't be an issue.

Ultimately it's just far easier and safer for landlords to say 'pay 6 months upfront' rather than pore over reams of foreign bank statements and cross their fingers everything's legit. If you say no, they will move on to the next applicant, that's the other problem, there are just so many applicants for flats these days.

I would do a lot of research about having your company rent a flat because I would wonder, for example, how you prove your permanent address to register for a GP and things like that. Or for energy bills, aren't individual consumers getting more help than businesses? Just be sure you aren't screwing yourselves over in some way, especially when you do have the cash to pay 6 months.

Alternatively you could rent a long-term AirBNB in the UK for a few months and get all your finances sorted, then you will pass a credit check no problem. That's what people without 6-12 months rent usually do.

There are gaps…you raise good points. Usually business bank accounts are kept separate from personal bank accounts. I also don’t think entire cost of your home can be run through the business…typically it’s costs of a home office and materials/equipment used fir business.

There are gaps…you raise good points. Usually business bank accounts are kept separate from personal bank accounts. I also don’t think entire cost of your home can be run through the business…typically it’s costs of a home office and materials/equipment used fir business.

Indeed. I smell a rat....