Applying to Rent A Home On a New Business Contract Following Universal Credit Claim

[Tractor Trace]

I'd appreciate input from anyone who has experience of applying to rent a home after a break in contracting. Following a 4 month recovery from an operation last year I contracted for 3 months then claimed universal credit for a further 3 months to the end of May this year.

I am due to start a new 6 month contract (inside IR35) in a couple of weeks and am looking to move in the next month to another rented property. Would I realistically be able to do this given that I was on universal credit for 3 months and what would potential letting agencies require for referencing? I have never been in a situation where I have had a break in contracting in terms of claiming as an unemployed director and having breaks in trading so not sure whether this would work against me from a risk point of view when renting. I don't want to waste my time applying if I will be rejected.

[eek]

The truthful answer is that every landlord and estate agent will make their own decision so nobody knows.

[courtg9000]

Landlords and agents are not allowed to discriminate against DSS anymore, however, some are coming up with very creative ways to get around this. I would stay where you are if you can say for at least 3 months and get some umbrella payslips on your side and rebuild your status a bit.

[eek]

Landlords and agents are not allowed to discriminate against DSS anymore, however, some are coming up with very creative ways to get around this. I would stay where you are if you can say for at least 3 months and get some umbrella payslips on your side and rebuild your status a bit.

In a lot of places down South the rules they use is first 6 months rent upfront because someone will be in a position to do that and it trumps everything else.

[courtg9000]

In a lot of places down South the rules they use is first 6 months rent upfront because someone will be in a position to do that and it trumps everything else.

Yes, this is true. The OP is unlikely to have the luxury of this funding based on his UC claim and involvement with the DSS even though the UC claim seems very short.

[ladymuck]

When I moved to my current rental the agency was doing affordability checks based on multiples of income - they accepted figures from my accountant but, having worked part-time for the better part of a year, my profit in the most recent set of accounts wasn't more than 4x the annual rent

Once I got over how poor I was all I had to do was provide evidence that I did have sufficient liquidity in a personal account to pay a year's rent but was not asked to pay it up front.

This is where a little bit of PDF editing came in handy as I found a statement from a dormant savings account and essentially forged it. The cash was in my LtdCo but I refused to move it out to my personal account, wait for a statement to be generated, and then move it back.

The requirement for payment up front will be down to the landlord/lady/person, not the letting agency, as it's them who bear the risk. My landlady is quite chill and ran her own business so completely understood peaks and troughs in income and just wanted a bit of reassurance - to her, a statement was sufficient.

[BlasterBates]

The main thing is the current contract. You were only on universal credit for three months therefore I would simply submit the income statements for the previous contract, as proof of income if requested. As an IT professional you'll be a desirable tenant.

[SueEllen]

In a lot of places down South the rules they use is first 6 months rent upfront because someone will be in a position to do that and it trumps everything else.

Depending on what you are renting e.g. house over a flat they may not rent it to you if you pay up front as they think you are going to turn it into a cannabis farm.

[GigiBronz]

they'll do an income check on you with open banking. they are not even interested in bank statements now(depends on agency and landlord but most likely no) I won't fudge anything but also I don't think that exists as an option.

depends on the area that you are looking in, you will find that the main issue is to find first a property to be happy with then: unless you can prove the income, it is not very likely they will rent it out to you.
They will play along, take your holding deposit while asking you to sign upfront on the affordability criteria and then pocket the holding deposit. simple.

I would rent over airbnb something maybe somewhere cheaper, maybe another area of interest to you, get an experience out of it at least, do that for a few months until you have the contract income going.

or find a guarantor that is happy to sing up for you... ( tough one, unless you have rich parents or siblings willing to go for it).

the world is not a free place, you have the freedom to choose what they tell you to do or live on the street and die of hunger.

being myself through UC application at some point, I can say that I would not count on it that much either, they will bluntly refuse your housing claim on any reason they can think of, ask for you to come with evidence that cannot be obtain. give you the run-around until you decide to give up and get the money somewhere else. the system I don't think is designed to act in any way helpful to the people, more of a "peace of mind" proposed for the plebs to sell their time cheaper and not be scared to go to the slaughterhouse.
if you get canned from your new role there is 6w waiting time to get back on UC so would really keep the expenses light while risk is high.

[courtg9000]

Depending on what you are renting e.g. house over a flat they may not rent it to you if you pay up front as they think you are going to turn it into a cannabis farm.

6 months rents on a 12 month let shouldn't really be an issue and is not long enough really for a farm. Payment of the full 12 upfront or payment of a longer contract in full up front would normally trigger the bells.