Landlords can't say "No DSS/UC" anymore so they ask for SIX MONTHS rent in advance!

[smmudge]

Yep I remember in 2015 I put up 6 months rent in advance, and I wasn't claiming benefits, I was working full time! But because I was on a temp contract they asked for that or a guarantor. Just because the company I used to work for took everyone on at first via an agency, soon after it became permanent. It's true it's easier to get a mortgage sometimes than a rental agreement

 

[SpookyFrank]

Okay. So we both lost our jobs due to COVID and fell behind on our rent. We haven't received an eviction notice yet but we're about to. The landlord has applied to the court for one and the case will be heard end of May. I don't know how long we'll be given but we're looking to leave anyway. The in-laws, who live in London, are getting older and have health problems and so need us closer (we're 70 miles away right now). Because we're out of work we're on Universal Credit.

Mr Back has been in London today to look at some flats and only then was told, after travelling down yesterday, that as we're claiming Uiversal Credit we need to pay 6 months rent in advance or find a guarantor who is earning at least £4k a month (I think that's what he said). We don't know anyone who earns that much.

They may not be able to legally deny tenants who are claiming benefits anymore but they make it impossible for them to rent in other ways. And since the average rent in London is, what, £1,500? That's close to £10k we'd have to find OR miraculously one of us finds work that pays enough to cover the rent themselves.

So in 6 weeks we will get an eviction notice. Does anyone know how much notice they give these days? Is it 2 months? 6? Whatever it is, we have that long to find work. On the bright side, things are opening back up again so we may get lucky...

We were told last year we'd have to pay six months rent up front if we couldn't find a guarantor. This is after I'd given them proof of an annual income of 26,000 and savings to boot.

Obviously you want to tell them to go fuck themselves but then you end up homeless.

 

[wtfftw]

My parents were going to do the guarantor bit but because they had retired they didn't pass those checks. It was totally ridiculous.

 

[SpookyFrank]

The whole system has definitely got worse in the last year. Landlords won't accept any risk to their unearned income, despite the fact actual earned income has fallen across the board.

 

[SpookyFrank]

On the plus side, a nearby house from which we were rejected as possible tennants is still 'to let' six months later. It's not cheap and it's on a fairly crummy street so anyone with the vast income/capital demanded by the agent would probably look elsewhere.

 

[quimcunx]

Ugh, massive bugbear of mine. And sadly - I briefly thought I might be able to squeeze the funds together for a studio flat rather than flatshare when I moved last autumn and looked online for possible flats, that's when I noticed it - it seems to become more and more common to just ask for a guarantor as default, even from people in full employment who meet the income threshold.
I think it's changed sometime in the last 5-10 years, didn't used to be a thing for the first decade of me renting in London.

When I just googled for a bit more info on this I found this "charming" landlord blog (sharpen your pitchforks, people, you will need them).

HELP, I Can't Get A Tenant Guarantor - Here's What You Should Do!

Sadly, many tenants struggle to get rental guarantors, while most landlords and agent won't accept tenants without one. Here are a few solutions that WORK!

www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk

I clicked on the comments which are quite interesting in as far as there are only a couple from the time the blog was written (2015), but then more and more people saying in the last couple of years "wtf is going on, I have been renting for x years/decades and now can't find a place without a guarantor", so it does seem a recent development on top of all the other insults and injuries of the UK rental market.

Not only, of course, do people generally have a limited pool of people who they could ask for such a massive favour, they also often have to be UK homeowning and not retired to qualify. And disclose a massive amount of personal and financial information. And as I understand it is also very difficult to get out of it again (you can't just do it for a fixed time, I don't think), so it is a massive commitment for the guarantor.

It might be worth looking into one of those rent guarantee insurance schemes that FridgeMagnet mentioned - of course, the parasitic scum factor is rather off-putting and they sound pretty scammy, but I think they are a thing.
Council offering a similar service sounds a much better option, so fingers crossed for you.

Having said all that, the landlord of the flat I ended up moving into didn't ask me for any references nor a deposit! (One of the flatmates had been here for a few years already, but she hasn't paid a deposit either and we have signed a normal formal joint tenancy agreement together between three of us).
That almost put me off as well for being so unusual.

Have you tried OpenRent | Property To Rent From Private Landlords ? All private landlords, I think, and not going through agencies, which I find preferable in terms of being able to speak to the landlord directly and potentially develop some sort of rapport.

Wishing you the best of luck!

The last time I was looking at rents there was barely anything under 600/650. Now barely anything under 750. It's a farce.

 

[existentialist]

At least there are places to rent. A Pembrokeshire estate agent reported last week that they have ZERO available properties on their books.

 

[bmd]

The last time I was looking at rents there was barely anything under 600/650. Now barely anything under 750. It's a farce.

Don't be horrid to the landlords, they are just trying to scrape by. Putting up the rent by 20% every 5 years is so that their children can eat. (((((landlords)))))

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Is this “6 months/guarantor” a London thing? Maybe I was just lucky, but when I was looking last year I was only asked for a security deposit plus one month up front, with an agency that covers the whole of the Midlands. Had to show 3 months worth of payslips to prove income, but that was it.

 

[mojo pixy]

Couple of years ago a friend had to find a new flat but didn't meet the income criteria (3.5x monthly rent as monthly income iirc) though they were in full-time work (!!) plus self-employed, and really earning enough to afford the rent (they have not since fallen into arrears so were correct). There was no way they could get a guarantor.

They had to provide bank statements as proof of income, because they were in a new job and had only had one payslip .. luckily screenshots were accepted (bless paperless banking). Therefore the solution involved errr photoshop. All accepted without question and they've been happily and securely housed for 2 years now.

Obviously I would not recommend committing fraud .. but in a situation of obvious exploitation, IMO there's no advantage in honesty when the power only goes one way.

 

[Elpenor]

I was asked for a guarantor by a Bournemouth letting agent, as I had less than 6 months service in my job. The fact that I had a 6 figure sum of cash in the bank having sold a house, and had relocated there for work didn’t mean anything to them.

 

[Brainaddict]

I was asked for a guarantor by a Bournemouth letting agent, as I had less than 6 months service in my job. The fact that I had a 6 figure sum of cash in the bank having sold a house, and had relocated there for work didn’t mean anything to them.

That's gibbering idiocy as well as being unfair. Which isn't surprising from estate agents, sadly. Someone I know wasn't allowed to move into a place with £350 pcm rent because the estate agent had a minimum income level for everyone - which was clearly designed with the idea that a room cost at least £600. They don't employ bright people at estate agents I guess, just hardened people with little empathy.

 

[Elpenor]

I should add that the accommodation issue was one of the reasons I left the job in Bournemouth, I couldn’t find an agent prepared to take 6 months rent in advance. My Bournemouth pay was more than enough to pay the rent from an affordability perspective. It’s true that in my experience I’ve found it easier to apply for a mortgage than rent a place.

I ended up getting another job in Exeter, and I’ve found all the letting agents I spoke to fine with the prospect of getting 6 months up front and no mention of a guarantor at all.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Is this “6 months/guarantor” a London thing?

Ultimately you can only get away with this sort of shit if demand is high enough that people have no choice but to go along with it. I think there are signs that may change in post Covid London but landlords there have had many years of having everything their own way in order to develop these attitudes.

 

[mjh1972]

acorn are doing some interesting work

ACORN || Union for the Community

ACORN, the union in the community.

www.acorntheunion.org.uk

I really recommend that as many renters as possible join ACORN. Having used their services on Bristol when having landlord issues the advice was second to none. SHELTER are very good but whilst providing excellent advice do not take on the bad landlords and agencies head on.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Is this “6 months/guarantor” a London thing?

Nope, we got the same shit pretty much everywhere we looked and we live in Exeter.

 

[baldrick]

Is this “6 months/guarantor” a London thing? Maybe I was just lucky, but when I was looking last year I was only asked for a security deposit plus one month up front, with an agency that covers the whole of the Midlands. Had to show 3 months worth of payslips to prove income, but that was it.

Nope, we're a guarantor for my sister in law who lives a few streets away. She earns a reasonable income in a permanent job and has never missed a rent payment but that doesn't seem to count for much. It's completely nuts.

 

[Orang Utan]

Is this “6 months/guarantor” a London thing? Maybe I was just lucky, but when I was looking last year I was only asked for a security deposit plus one month up front, with an agency that covers the whole of the Midlands. Had to show 3 months worth of payslips to prove income, but that was it.

It happens up here in Leeds too. My dad was guarantor for my sister a few times but the last time she moved his income was deemed to be too low to qualify (he is retired but has a generous enough pension), so he had to get a bank loan to cover 6 months rent

 

[SpookyFrank]

Even if the six months' rent thing was illegal, who would you report it to? What's the penalty?

 

[Orang Utan]

Even if the six months' rent thing was illegal, who would you report it to? What's the penalty?

Collective action - rough music then pillory for the worst offenders

 

[SpookyFrank]

Collective action - rough music then pillory for the worst offenders

Trouble is landlords/agents are not above looking up potential tennants' online presence and they're definitely not above blacklisting troublemakers.

In principle though I agree that landlordism is an act of violence and should be dealt with as such.

 

[MickiQ]

How common is this guarantor thing now then? When my son moved off campus into private accomodation during his second and third year at Uni, I had to act as guarantor but I wasn't suprised, I would imagine students are shit tenants but I didn't have to either time he rented a flat after he graduated and found a job. One of them was London as well from 2013 to 2015.

 

[bellaozzydog]

Having watched someone going through the screening process to
Rent a Place recently I can confirm he
Could have got a mortgage easier than pass the checks

Goodlord - Home

Goodlord is the award-winning lettings platform that works alongside your CRM to manage the entire tenancy process in one place.

www.goodlord.co

this bunch of towering cunts asked him to
Video himself opening his own online banking to confirm he was who he said he was. They had already done full credit checks and id’d him

the small Print said “you don’t have to...

 

[SpookyFrank]

How common is this guarantor thing now then? When my son moved off campus into private accomodation during his second and third year at Uni, I had to act as guarantor but I wasn't suprised, I would imagine students are shit tenants but I didn't have to either time he rented a flat after he graduated and found a job. One of them was London as well from 2013 to 2015.

What's a 'shit tennant' is that someone who doesn't deserve a home then?

 

[MickiQ]

What's a 'shit tennant' is that someone who doesn't deserve a home then?

Well using my son as an example fairly literal actually, cleaning was not a concept he and his housemates really got their heads round.

 

[mojo pixy]

Well using my son as an example fairly literal actually, cleaning was not a concept he and his housemates really got their heads round.

Tsk tsk, I blame the parents

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

What's a 'shit tennant' is that someone who doesn't deserve a home then?

Well, to use the example of the family that lived next to me a year or so ago - they trashed the house, let their kids draw and paint all over the walls, don't pay rent for several months, then fucked off in the middle of the night

 

[MickiQ]

What's a 'shit tennant' is that someone who doesn't deserve a home then?

OK Frank I'll bite whats your solution (full or partial) to the current's housing crisis, A large scale public house building program of a wide range to cover all needs would be great but won't happen for at least 15 years minimum and probably will never happen.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

OK Frank I'll bite whats your solution (full or partial) to the current's housing crisis

Ownership of more than one property by individuals or married couples banned. Private landlords thus abolished. Rental housing stock nationalised.

 

[Orang Utan]

OK Frank I'll bite whats your solution (full or partial) to the current's housing crisis, A large scale public house building program of a wide range to cover all needs would be great but won't happen for at least 15 years minimum and probably will never happen.