Any estate agents / landlords / anyone else have any advice?
We have a family of Ukrainians living with us – a mum, daughter (5 yrs) and mother-in-law / gran.
They’ve been living with us for c. 8 months, mum and MIL both have jobs (c. 5 months) and the kid is in school so the last bastion of getting them fully set up in the UK is now getting their own place.
My question is what will help make them look attractive to landlords?
Particularly thinking given they don’t have any credit history. Is credit history needed? Should they think about getting a credit card to start building a credit history up? How long of a history is needed?
P. S. We live in hertforshire.
Thanks in advance!
5 comments
It’s a hard one as landlords want to see you can pay consistently on time and with no credit history it’s hard to show that… however we all start out somewhere ! So guess just apply and see what happens!
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They’re both working so make sure they save their pay slips as proof of income, have a copy of their employment contracts, ID documents all ready, having this all scanned and digitized will save time. It would be a good idea to have a decent amount of savings ready as well. In lieu of a credit history and guarantor, something like 6 months rent upfront is very enticing to a landlord.
My Uncle is hosting Ukrainians and the council have offered to turn it into a tenancy when the 6 months are up so the family they are hosting can claim the housing element and pay rent if you have room for them to stay that might be an option. You can’t get a credit card without UK credit history either. Talk to your council about options for housing.
Basically all a landlord cares about is can the tenant make their regular monthly payments because if you look at the ‘referencing’ that gets carried out everything is geared around money, credit checks, employment status and guarantor (not always needed). I know people that are well into their 30’s and 40’s who don’t have a credit history because they’ve never had a credit card or a loan or bought stuff on finance and when they tried to rent a flat the landlord refused because they failed the reference check (no credit history meant the landlord could not trust that the rent would be paid on time).
Therefore if the people do not have a credit history they will fail at the first hurdle and immediately fail the reference check.
As for your other questions, is a credit history required, yes. How long a history is needed, that all depends on the landlord and/or the letting agent who is managing the property on behalf of the landlord, could be 3 months, 6 months or even a year.