Returning expats wanting to rent in UK - problems?

[NichyNoo]

Hello

We are a family currently living in continental Europe and planning on returning to UK in early 2013. Hopefully moving to Wirral area (to be close to family) for first 6-12 months before I look for a job and we move to wherever that job may be.

DH and I are both British but lived abroad for 10 years. We currently own our flat in the country where we live. We have no UK references as we have never rented in the UK and probably little or no credit history in the UK apart from paid off student loans, UK bank accounts and one UK credit card that is paid off immediately it is used.

I have been told that landlords may feel uneasy renting to us (despite DH having a very good job) and that they will only take DH's credit history into account as he will be the only one working. This may result in us having to pay 6 months rent up front!

Can anyone advise if they think we will have trouble finding somewhere and what (if anything) we can do in advance to improve our chances? Thank you!

You can get character references from where you are now and a letter from your dh's job.

I would offer as many months in advance as you can manage and you should be fine.

We didn't have any issues when we moved back to the UK. We gave the agency 6 months rent in advance and character references. We secured it before we even landed back in Scotland.

To be honest, I reckon just about every Landlord/Agency will expect 6 months up front because you won't be on the electoral register which is the first thing any reputable one will check on.

Can I ask where you got character references from please? We're both on the electoral register as overseas voters in our last registered address so I'm hoping that counts for something!

Character references from employers or people in positions of trust.
FWIW, I came back from abroad without my DH. We do have a mortgage on this house we are living in which made him more attractive when we had credit checks.
Can you prove that you own your property wherever you are? or at least met the repayments punctually?

How about paying cash up front? Do they have to have references and all that crap if they get all the cash up front?

If youre on the electoral register, have a uk bank account and credit card, I don't think you have anything to worry about. We were not on the electoral register, but had uk bank account and credit card and had no problems at all.

We moved to the uk after being abroad for 16 years. It did not seem to pose a problem at all and we only paid a months deposit. The letting agents got a reference from DH job and they did a credit check as usual. We moved back to the uk a couple of years ago.