Renting Tips for the Self-Employed

[Eastwiththem]

We're looking to relocate from Edinburgh to Bristol in the summer. I'm a private tutor (but about to go on mat leave) and DH is an web developer. He is technically employed by a limited company but essentially it's just him.

I've been phoning letting agents this morning and they have all been very snippy about our job situation, especially as we are both new to self-employment and haven't got a year's worth of accounts to show. I can understand that they don't want tenants to default on the rent but we have perfect credit scores and over 6 years worth of rent payments sitting in our savings account (hence why we decided we could risk self-employment and quit the proper jobs we hated!) This will go up to 13 years worth of rent when we sell our flat in Edinburgh so money and income really isn't an issue.

I've also been looking at fees - some of them want to charge the best part of £1k just to do the paperwork! Is this right? Any tips for negotiating them down? Last time we rented up here was from a private landlord so we didn't have any fees at all, and the Scottish system seems a lot different for agencies too.

Thank you :)

The agents charge is usually a few hundred, also a months rent in advance. Its not really up to the agents to decide whether you're credit worthy - they will run credit checks for that.

This is what is so stupid about finance/credit checks at the moment, decent people with long stable histories seem to get no more positive response than someone who has drifted from one area to another, building up debt in each place. Sorry rant over (trying to get thro the new re-mortgage process at the mo!).

You could find a guarantor or offer to pay x months' rent upfront?

Does your husband have payslips from the limited company? That might help?

I've just accepted tenants who won't pass credit checks - SAHM plus DP on probationary period - because they offered to pay 6m rent upfront. I didn't ask this of them, they offered it to the LA as soon as they decided they liked the flat. The fact that they had thought about the issue and come up with a solution to mitigate my risk made me much more amenable to them. And for me, 6m upfront is better than a credit-checked person paying monthly as they could default at any time whereas this way I know my mortgage is covered. We will credit check once his probation period is over and depending on situation then can decide to switch to monthly payment or else they will pay a lump sum again or have them leave.

I suspect other LLs would take a lump sum upfront whatever the LA says - guaranteed mortgage payments are very attractive!

Thanks, we could do 6 months rent so I might go with that as a bargaining chip.

DH does get payslips but they don't show his real income as he's the owner of the company so pays himself a basic wage then tops it up with dividends when he can - that way he still gets money in months when he doesn't have much work coming in. I'm really looking forward to doing his tax return next year.

PS - Sunny totally appreciate the rant! We are only really renting as we can't get a decent mortgage until DH has been working self employed for at least a year.

As a complete aside, I have a ltd company and pay myself like your DH. My tax return was actually fairly straightforward, promise!

Phew! I did mine this year and it wasn't too bad but his is going to be way more complex than mine, glad to hear that it's not too painful though :)