Feeling frustrated and a bit down about the struggle to get a flat

[CabbagePatch91]

I'm pretty frustrated and annoyed. I'm 19 weeks pregnant, have worked in my professional role for 2 months and have been advised I'll be getting kept on (even being put through a very expensive course that keeps me in employment for at least 2 years). My fiance has also just got a job in which he has been in for 2 months.

We both just moved back to the city after jointly running a bar on a remote island. We've been renting for 3 months but our neighbours are horrendous (weed, loud music, banging, leaving close door unlocked all day and night) so we're looking to move.

Found the perfect flat, have already sent the landlord so much information from my freelance income to our pay slips to references and absolutely everything else in between and more. We've also paid a £600 deposit and can prove that we're responsible and financially sound... But he's making us now go through a referencing company who are doing even more checks! Arg.

I completely understand where he's coming from - it's his property and he wants to trust those who occupy it to be able to afford it and not leave him in the sh*t. However, we're both in really good jobs, they pay well and we're about to bring a child into the world so don't plan on becoming homeless/jobless...

The catch is that my fiancé's contract is a 'rolling' one which means that could flag up as an issue. The worst part is that we've to be out of our current residence by the 30th as they found out we'd been looking elsewhere through all the referencing checks.

We hope to find out tomorrow but could really just do with this guy giving us a chance. Feeling a bit down and unworthy that we're being so heavily vetted 😟

Sorry for the rant. Just hoping for some positive vibes our way

How much notice did your current landlords give you? Doesn’t sound like they’ve followed the legal process if you’ve got an AST

They've given us 30 days notice from when they first found out. The regulations in Scotland changed in December so it's a lot different that it used to be.

I just want this big lovely flat that is proving very hard to get

I just want the lovely big flat to make my wee family home a safe and comfortable place.

Don’t take the referencing personally. If your landlord has rent guarantee insurance for example there are often requirements to do a professional and independent level of vetting. He wouldn’t be wasting his time if he didn’t want to give you a chance. They won’t want a void they can avoid so won’t be going through this process if they didn’t think you were likely to be a good tenant from initial checks. Some landlords are also gittery if they’ve had a bad experience in the past so do need to do relevant checks.

As a landlord we’ve only ever not pursued with one tenant and that was when they had lied to us in the initial call having said they had no CCJs and their check came back and they had two. Another tenant that we did checks on they had a poor credit number but that could be explained and he had been honest beforehand which we liked and he gave he extra proof of income and how he had regularly paid his last landlord. It sometimes feels intrusive but as we say to tenants it is so we all get off on the right understanding and then it can be their home.

Wishing you all the best and hope it works out for you.

Thanks @Petts@. Your comments are reassuring

Should hopefully find out today... Eek.

Oops - don't know where the @signs came from!

This is the regulation change, although I would have thought your current tenancy would also be covered by those. It is now extremely difficult to evict Scottish tenants so your landlord is doing all he can to ensure you are the type of people he wont want to evict.

Legislation backfire. Hang in there.

We got it! Sign the lease tomorrow

Yay! Thanks for letting us know and enjoy your new home.