Updating post from Reddit.
Hey everyone,
Hopefully someone here can help me with some tips to find a place to rent in the UK. I am looking to move from the United States to the UK, and I have gotten a bit disheartened by the process. I have done a fair number of virtual viewings for about 2 months now, and I have sent many applications. I have not gotten a reply from any of the places I've applied, and I am looking to know what am I missing in my application. Is it just really hard when you are applying from abroad? Or is the market just generally saturated and difficult for anyone to find a place?
What kind of things would you as landlords be looking for in a tenant? I have a really good credit score here in the US, but does this show up in credit checks in the UK? I also have savings, am finishing my PhD and have a job lined up in London. My wife is already in the UK and is working there while staying with family. She also just moved recently so her credit score is also US based.
I read in several places that we should hire a letting agent, and I am considering this. Also maybe my wife's family can serve as guarantors, but we have not had that conversation with them yet. Someone else told us that we should offer to pay several months, like 3 or 6 months rent upfront, which I find really weird. Even if we offered to pay that, we have not gotten a response back from a landlord on any of our applications. We apply through the letting agency that shows us the place, so we don't even know if our applications are being seen by landlords. Is this something we should bring up during the viewing?
Would appreciate any tips, and this being my first post here on Reddit I'll try to reply as best as I can.
There does not seem to be a lot of flexibility in the situation , if you don't have a UK credit rating , so perhaps get a UK based guarantor in place already if you are viewing through agents for a rental property. You perhaps have to present your case from the of, so you won't get dismissed. I am a landlord , and even though I rent a property out in the UK , because I have lived overseas for many years nobody would accept me as a tenant , well at least without 6mths upfront payment , because I basically don't have a credit rating in the UK , they don't seem to accept anything else. An individual landlord may accept your individual circumstances, if you get to the point they are presented with them .
Right, I feel like we never have gotten the chance to meet with the actual landlords so far. It's only been with an agent. We have definitely presented our case to the agent.
When it comes to the guarantor, is there any legal document that we need to have to present to the agent/agency/landlord?
You mentioned the 6 months upfront payment. Would this be something we let the agent know about, i.e. that we are ready to pay that, when we inform them we are interested in the place?
You don't need to present guarantor documents up front , just make sure you know what they entail and you have a UK based guarantor who would be willing to sign them , you can say to the agt that you would consider an up front payment ( although new legislation coming in is going to make this not possible for landlords ,so a UK guarantor is your best option) You could try sites like Open rent where you are dealing direct with landlord when you go to view / rent a property .
We went with OpenRent and we contacted a few places. We'll see how that goes. And yes we are looking to see if a family member can serve as a guarantor, and honestly we will offer the upfront payment if that's still allowed. Thanks for all the advice!
Try openrent to connect to a property owner directly.
Hi there, I'm from Mexico. The process here is a pain in the *** but is similar to the process in Mexico. I I've passed some references check before, only by showing my bank accounts and speak with the agent about my self employed situation. Then they run the check and help you out. It's kind of easy once you know what they want. Write me if you need some help. I would recommend you to use platforms like Spareroom or Zoopla :) and then just contact the agency or the landlors
Thanks a lot for replying. I DM'd you!
Rental proceas is a bit different in the UK compared to the US. You don't need to hire an agent. Usually you view or virtual view the house you want to rent, if you are happy with it you let the landlords agent know and they will collect your information such as income, job contract, guarantor, reference and they'll do a credit check. The agent needs to send your application to the landlord which is required by law. I think in your case, the landlords have multiple applications and unfortunately they moved on with other applicants. It could be that the agency highlighted to the landlords that you only recently moved to the UK and the credit report is not available, and the landlords just selected others who already have established UK credit score and references as a safe option. You can certainly explain your situation to the agency. Years ago I rented my property to a family of migrants from Hong Kong and they were new to the country but I was ok with that. I would say keep looking and make sure the agency understands your situation and that you can offer additional materials for background checks.
By the way which city are you moving to?
Our jobs are/will be in London, but rents there are really high, and we're not sure how we'll like to live in the city so we've been looking a bit further away. We've been looking for any place close to a train station (~15 min walk radius) in the Great Northern/Thameslink line, anywhere between Potters Bar to Baldock, and along the Greater Anglia line, anywhere between Roydon to Stansted.
So should we let the agent know right there and then if we like the place? We usually check the place, and tell the agent that we'll let them know after me and my wife have had a discussion. We get back to them within the day or next morning.
Do you think it would be useful to have our credit scores from the US printed? There doesn't seem to be a way to share a link, so I thought maybe printing them from our banks would be useful.
What about all the other information, like the job contract, guarantor, and reference? Would it be useful to print them out and give them to the agent right away, or is this something they would ask after the landlord has seen our application? The applications we have been given so far are really simple, with just a few questions. Is this also normal?
If you are interested in the property just let the agent know right away and they will collect some information from you. Usually the agent will only ask basic information from you. What the landlord will receive is a couple of lines about the tenant like age, profession, salary, number of families etc. Once the landlord decides which one to proceed the agent will then request further information from you. In your case you can tell the agent something like you are moving from US, you can have a guarantor etc, I'm sure the agent will forward this to the landlord. However it's still landlords decision which tenant he wants to pick.
In terms of credit score, I don't think US score will do. You have to explain that you don't currently have UK credit score and that you'll provide other forms of documentation such as references or guarantor.
Thank you so much for this info! It seems we just need to be prepared to be rejected and that we'll have to be persistent and ready with our information. Others suggested going through OpenRent to get in touch with a landlord directly so that's what we will do as well. It seems there are less listings on OpenRent compared to Rightmove, but maybe these will be the ones we want. Thanks again for your help.
London rental market is extremely competitive. Good and decent places get snap up on the same day of viewing and there are occasionally bidding wars for a particular good / desirable property. Having said that, 2 months of virtual viewing and without a response is very surprising as I don't see any particular issue.
With the limited info being you are US citizen moving the UK, London with a job lined up, what is your budget ?
Assumed you already have the work visa as it is a legal requirement for right to rent checks otherwise no legit agent or landlord will entertain your application without.
Basically, you need to present yourself as the most attractive and least risk to the landlord. Meaning being able to demonstrate you have more than sufficient financial ability / affordability (a stable job / full time employment ideally earning >3x of the rent), you already mentioned credit rating, good reference (althought personally not the most important as they are generally not reliable), UK guarantor helps reduce the risk although not critical.
Letting agency could help but generally more expensive rental as the landlord needs to factor in the commission to pay the letting agent but could reduce the risk of you falling for a rental scam.
I think you just need to get a temporary place for 1-2 months and then once you are in London, you can then properly search of a longer term rental once you get more familiar.
Can I ask if you are looking for a place just for yourself or you and your wife ? Is your wife then not better place to be performing the rental search here as she is physically in London.