Paying 6 months rent in advance

[Ali657]

Me and my friend are looking to rent a house together with our 2 children. We are both on universal credits and working and we will be entitled to housing element to cover the cost of renting.

We are struggling to find a landlord who will take us as we are on low income. If we were to borrow money from a relative to pay 6 months rent in advance would we still be entitled to the housing element of universal credit for those 6 months to pay back the relative?

We are struggling to find any advice online about this.

Thanks in advance

Citizens Advice will be able to help. Check out their website for the phone number. They also have live on-line chat from time to time.

Thank you, I’ll give it a go!

You should also check if after 4 months they'll ask for another 6 months. It's their way of avoiding renting to people on UC.

Best of luck

Thank you for the advice foxyroxyyy. We are happy to pay 6 months again but only if we can get it back as obviously my dad doesn’t want to be paying my rent.
It’s so annoying as we both have really good credit scores and could get multiple guarantors. I have had cars on finance my whole driving life and have never missed a payment. They just see universal credits and say no

@foxyroxyyy is this something you have done? Did you get the 4 months rent paid back?

Thought it was illegal not to rent to UC claimants. I'm trying to move out as a single mum from my ex's in to a flat near DD's school and I will need to claim LHA to cover all of my rent.

@DollhouseBurglar it is but they will give other excuses they won’t say that specifically. One of the houses said we needed a combined income of 42,000 a year but couldn’t include universal credits or any income from zero hours contract in that

That's awful. They're getting paid. You could even get the money paid directly to the landlord, so what's the problem.

How can anyone facing homelessness rent privately then? The council are trying to get people off the housing register.

[quote Ali657]@foxyroxyyy is this something you have done? Did you get the 4 months rent paid back?[/quote]
Well it pays your rent so effectively you've paid the full year so there's nothing to refund.

It's a way to keep people on benefits out without openly discriminating

Sorry no I haven't done it. I almost had to but didn't in the end due to change of circumstances.

If you have a guarantor you shouldn't have to pay it.

@DollhouseBurglar I know it really isn’t fair. Where I live there isn’t even a register, you either qualify for a council house or you don’t.
I sort of get it from a landlords point of view if they have had a bad experience but I don’t think they should make assumptions if they haven’t even met you.

My younger brother used to pay 6 month rent in advance to avoid credit check as his was very poor in Manchester and never had problem with them.

Recently, he found a website where Landlords advertise without Estate Agent and he has been successful with that

@chukwe was he on universal credits?

[quote Ali657]@chukwe was he on universal credits?[/quote]
No, he's an IT Contractor so paying 6 or 12 months was never an issue for him them. It's just he had a very bad credit which I don't know how it came about.

Hi, I rent privately and initially was only on UC. I got a part time job after a month luckily so my income is a combination of UC and wages. My landlord was fine luckily, very understanding but they did require a guarantor. I had a good reference from my previous private landlord (10 years) so that helped too. So perhaps a guarantor would be adequate for you too?

Also I was able to get help from the council rent deposit scheme, they paid the initial deposit and this is returned to them at the end of the tenancy. That helped a LOT!

Landlords are still advertising 'No DSS' on some sites, not on the major ones like Zoopla and RightMove.

I really want to report these adverts. Me and DD need somewhere to live, but as a student parent with no guarantor, this probably won't happen now. Will make our lives worse.

@Gingerbeerfear even with a guarantor nobody seems to want us. I guess we will just have to wait until we find an understanding landlord.

@DollhouseBurglar I know it’s ridiculous, I don’t know what they expect us to do. Because you are moving out from an ex’s house they will probably help you out as there is no where for you to go. I’m moving out from a parents house so I don’t get treated as a priority.

But they would probably put me in a grotty b&b, miles from my support network. I need somewhere near my child's school.

Pretty scummy of landlords to actively seek loopholes to prevent those in need from getting a roof over their heads.

I do hope you find somewhere OP. It's a shit situation.

@DollhouseBurglar I know, really unfair. Thank you I hope you do too. I’m going to call universal credits on Monday for advice so I’ll let you know if there are any updates.

@DollhouseBurglar just thought I would update you. Apparently landlords are being extra fussy at the moment. Because of Covid, they have to give you 6 months notice before they evict you. So obviously they could be stuck with awful tenants for 6 months. It’s kind of understandable but still don’t know what they expect us to do

I would think a reference from a previous landlord could help weed out the shitty tenants.

So still no luck?

If you pay the rent up front you can still claim UC during that time to repay your relative

Some places are very wary of people offering to pay large chunks of rent up front... it will flag up as potential money laundering so your relative will potentially need to be happy to share bank statements etc.