Anybody else out there renting, or trying to rent, privately?

[bridgingtheabyss]

Just wanted to have a bit of a rant, come and join me! We have a bunch of problems with our rented house, a few of which I've detailed here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/1355958-Are-there-any-decent-landlords-out-there-Really

We applied for another house through an estate agent about 6 weeks ago and paid £200 (!) to have our credit and reference checks done. For the longest time the company doing these checks on behalf of the estate agent couldn't get in touch with our landlord so they asked us to send in 6 months' worth of bank statements to prove we've been paying our rent, which we duly did. They then said these didn't prove we pay our rent coz though they show £500 going out every month by standing order they don't mention our landlord's name anywhere What they think we're spending that sort of money on instead f* knows.

So they finally got our landlord on the phone but apparently coz of his poor English they couldn't get him to understand they were asking for a reference; consequently they've sent him a letter. We're not hopeful he is going to understand/reply to said letter, so where does that leave us? It's mad that our moving, something not in his interests, is dependent on him in this way.

We never had these sorts of problems when we moved into this house a few years ago (through a different agency). I know the rental market has gotten pretty competitive - can we expect this at all agencies now, or is the agency we're dealing with just particularly strict/bureaucratic?

Is the property managed by an agency? If so, they would give a reference for you if they act as middle-man for the rent. I think the new estate agent is being an arse, especially after seeing your bank statements. Perhaps you could highlight the bit on your statement where the council tax payment is too. I would drop a polite note to your landlord too, saying that you need his help and would he mind helping, please. There isn't anything in it for him, of course, but you might just speed up the process by kissing ass! Good luck.

Maybe you could ask your bank to put a reference name on the standing order? I don't know if that would then show retrospectively bug the reference number would be the same so maybe they will accept the match up that way.