UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello, my husband moved to the UK three months ago. When he found a job, I moved here as well, in order to help him find a house and bring our children over. For the moment we are renting a room in a family house. My husband is the only one working and he doesn't have a permanent contract. His job is on going though, with a very good salary, and he wouldn't have a problem finding another job the very next day, if anything happened. Unfortunately, it seems a bit difficult to rent a house, because we just moved to the country and normally we don't have a guarantor. We have many people who would willingly guarantee for us, but all of them live in another European country. We also have some savings, but they would be enough for about 8 months' rent for a family house. However, the agent told us that we should either pay 12 months rent in advance of find a guarantor within the UK. Could anybody please tell me what to do, because I am new here and I don't even know how things work exactly. The only thing I know is that I can't leave my kids away with relatives for much longer. Thank you.

Different approaches with different Agents / Landlords, I expect. I have accepted 3 months rent payment on day 1 previously from Tenants who were in a non-perfect situation, let's say. This helped convince me they could save and should be OK... so far they have been great... 11 months on. 12 months sounds like a lot. 6 months, you'd hope, would be acceptable to nearly everyone. There should be room to negotiate. Also consider going to a Landlord direct.. they don't have to follow an Agent's rules / procedures... and might make a decision based more on their impression of you... which, hopefully, would be positive.

For clarity, there are no fixed rules regarding this.

Thank you very much for giving me hopes. The problem is that I already paid the fees once and afterwards they told me about a guarantor or 12 months in advance, so not only didn't I rent the house but I also lost 300 pounds for nothing. So am I supposed to pay 300p to every agent and then negotiate with the landlord, or should I ask them before paying the fees to contact the landlord and agree on 6 months deposit? Also, how many months should someone work continuously, in order to be considered as a low risk tenant and not to need a guarantor? Furthermore, my current landlord gets paid every week for the room that he is renting to me. But, he is not very happy about giving me a reference, because he gets the money without giving me a receipt. Does he have the right to refuse me a reference, since we always pay him on time, we don't cause any trouble and we keep the place in a very good condition?

You do not have to rent via an Agent at all. What I meant was you might have better luck finding a property where the contact is the Landlord themself. I would, of course, see any Agent taking money from me for nothing as nigh on criminal... but ensure everyone is aware of the situation (and any limitations) before handing over a penny. Don't get into the same situation more than once.

I do not think it is mandatory for anyone to provide anyone with a reference... they can only be asked.

Thank you so much!

If your husband is working and earning £100k a year, it's a different set up, than if he is earning £20k.

Most Agency's will use a company to credit score you, and by far the biggest thing is you being on the Electoral Roll.

£300 is allot,  references are £70 a person normally.

Ask the Agent to ask the landlord if he will accept 3 months deposit, make them do it, or speak to him yourself. 12 months is ridiculous.