UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi all,

First post from a new landlord wanted to get some thoughts on my situation.

I have two prospective tenants which I'm unsure of moving forward to referencing with.

Tenant 1: works for a charity with supplementary part time work, but going on maternity leave next month, currently employed.

Tenant 2: self employed manual therapist with supplementary part time work. Combined monthly income (currently) passes affordability.

My question is from an affordability and risk perspective. Obviously with the maternity leave there's a big question mark over future income and when they will return to work.

Here are my thoughts on how to proceed (welcome your feedback):

Tenant 1 (maternity): Request a guarantor, employer checks- when they expect them to return to work + standard referencing/credit checks/3 months payslips and bank statements

Tenant 2 (self employed): Request a guarantor, 3 years of self assessment tax returns breaking out salary and dividends, accountant reference on affordability/confirm profit, 6 months bank statements.

Offer Both (subject to above being satisfactory): 6 months AST agreement with payment received upfront.

Welcome your thoughts on what I could be missing and opinions on whether I should move on from them based on your experience

Thanks.

Whatever you do... you shouldn't really be offering both an AST... you should be choosing one to proceed with, doing the referencing and offering the AST if all goes well. Only if a problem occurs do you start the other one off referencing. In this case - and it's why I do my own viewings - I would have asked some questions about savings. Nothing too probing and intrusive... just something to give me a good vibe. I wouldn't be considering a Guarantor. I find they're difficult to set-up properly and be binding, and next to useless when it comes down to it (others may disagree). All said and done... the employed Tenant is generally more attractive than the Self-Employed (I say that even with the upcoming change to her lifestyle).

It's not 100% about the numbers, though... did you not get a personal vbe?

Self-employed manual therapist? Tee hee!

I got an ok vibe but yes agree should be asking about their savings. Self employed manual therapist probably also isn't the best bet in a covid world should things regress! Either way decided not to proceed in the end. First time using Openrent to source tenants and the quality has been lacking to say the least! Currently have an enquiry from two students who's parents will pay the rent but their parents are non-UK citizens and live in the EU. Probably not one for an inexperienced, let alone experienced landlord!

It's fine if they pay the rent up front... by that I mean I do that every year with a property of mine.