Credit references on a rental check (with a default)

[bingsulaflop]

Apologies I wasn't sure 100% where this would go - MN please feel free to move to a more appropriate topic.

Me and DP are looking to rent an apartment (we are living with my parents at the moment), I however have a default on my credit file (from this time last year) and DP has good credit.

I have spoke with the letting agency first and have told them how much my partner earns (they then went ahead with booking us for a viewing) so I am assuming this is all fine (they also double checked if we had a home owner guarantor just in case)

However they don't know of my default, both our names will be on the rental agreement, how do I go about telling them? We haven't secured the property yet, I wasn't sure if it's worth telling them before paying to secure and filling in all the credit references or waiting till we've secured it with a deposit?

More importantly, will I even be able to rent with a default?
Has anyone been in this position? I'm worrying myself as I really love the place we are hoping to go for..

Any help would be much appreciated!

You have to inform the letting agent if any defaults or CCJs before you apply to rent the property. They may refuse to let to you if they find out about the default whilst carrying out credit checks. Always best to be honest from the start.

I had a CCJ when applying to let my current property, I informed the agents and was accepted. They told me i wouldn't have been if I hadn't informed them in advance of the credit checks.

My understanding of this is that the credit search that a letting agent can
Carry out is only on formation that is On public record, such as CCJ's and insolvencies such as bankruptcy, not defaults, so you should be ok in that respect. Obviously you will need to meet their other criteria such as affordability and other referencies. God luck.

I haven't applied to rent since 2006 and at the time I had a lot of things going on on my credit file (including a bankruptcy a few years earlier) I was very upfront with the letting agent and said this is the deal and she said thanks for letting her know, it would have been a problem if you hadn't told me. It all went through fine and we lived there 12 years!