Reply to: Renting advice for a new contractor - is the estate agent lying?

[NotAllThere]

I owned a house, sold it and moved to another area. Before buying a house in the new area, I rented for a year.

I supplied a record of my income to the letting agency for the previous 2 years, and told them I was still employed by myco. I explained I had employment income (low) and dividend income (high). No mention of contracts was made by either side. I passed the credit check.

If the agency muppet can't understand, try this, assuming the rent is £2000 a month. Go round to the agency with a suitcase containing £24,000. Count it out in front of the agent. Say "Here is 6 months rent". Take back £1,000. "That's to cover the loss of interest on my capital, because you won't accept monthly payments". Make sure you go in at a busy time. It might be advisable to take a large, violent-looking friend with you.

[Spartacus]

You present your payslips for employment with your ltd. The payslips show only a salary equivilent to £10k a year (because the rest of your income comes from dividends). If the rent is £1k a month, is the agent not going to say something like "err.. you can't afford this place". When you explain that you take the majority of your income in the form of divs then you're back to square 1, no?

That, my friend, is one of the downsides of paying yourself a low salary. Gotta take the rough with the smooth.

[oracleslave]

Can you repeat that in English please?

It's quite simple. If you are paying yourself minimum wage (or somewhere thereabouts) then the payslips will not prove that you can neccessarily afford the rent.

HTH

[MrRobin]

Can you repeat that in English please?

You present your payslips for employment with your ltd. The payslips show only a salary equivilent to £10k a year (because the rest of your income comes from dividends). If the rent is £1k a month, is the agent not going to say something like "err.. you can't afford this place". When you explain that you take the majority of your income in the form of divs then you're back to square 1, no?

[chasingtheaurora]

Lying cheating scumbags, the lot of them. Second only to journalists.

Grrr.

/rant.

[Spartacus]

Suppose you do this and you produce a payslip with a salary of around £10k because your contracts are not caught by IR35. How do you explain next when the rent is £1k a month...?

Can you repeat that in English please?

[MrRobin]

Just tell them (truthfully) that you work permanently for MarsCorp Ltd and that you can provide payslips if you need them. I'll admit this might be tricky if the company has a similar name and address to your own.

Suppose you do this and you produce a payslip with a salary of around £10k because your contracts are not caught by IR35. How do you explain next when the rent is £1k a month...?

[BlasterBates]

Me and my other half are both contractors through ltd companies and are trying to rent a property for the next 6 months.

An estate agent just accepted my offer on a rented house but said that unless I had 2 years of accounts (which neither of us have) or we have a contract for the full 6 months of the rental contract (which we don't) we will fail the credit check. He said all we could do was pay the 6 months rent in advance.

Is he trying it on or telling the truth? Has anyone else been able to rent with less than 2 years accounts?

Any advice would be a real help.

Well he's not trying it on because he doesn't know you, and most people would satisfy that criteria. As a "has been" landlord I also wouldn't let to someone potentially out of work, or illiquid, as you're asking for it. Not paying rent is very common. I would negotiate, prehaps you can curtail the agreement to when your contracts run out and then renew when you do have a contract. If you have substantial savings that would probably suffice. If you're broke and your contracts run out soon, then its going to be difficult.

[Moscow Mule]

Rental Agents are muppets. Once they realise how much money you make they are more than happy to accomodate you...

[jmars]

Thanks for your replies.

The problem with telling them that we both work for companies and providing pay slips is that I haven't started my contract yet and my other half's pay slip shows that he earns next to nothing and it wouldn't cover the rent. But yes, in reality we'll both be earning in 2 days what the rent is. The other problem is that our company names are pretty close to our surnames so it's a bit obvious.

I'm going to have another go this morning to explain the situation to the arsehole. We could also prove to them that we have the money in savings but why should they earn interest on our savings for 6 months? Surely if I was retired and living off savings they'd let me rent? Or if I was a multimillionaire?

[The Lone Gunman]

The clue is in the title "Estate AGENT"

[Sockpuppet]

You probably make the rent in a day between you so I don't see what the issue it.

Simple fact is that there are more retals than renters so you can afford to be choosy.

[shoes]

Is he trying it on or telling the truth? Has anyone else been able to rent with less than 2 years accounts?

He is being a knob. You don't fit into a nice neat little box that he is used to dealing with so he's all confused. Aww. I've rented before by explaining how I work to the guy that owns the estate agents and there's been no problem. You're probably dealing with the monkey, ask to speak to the organ grinder. Or package the information for him in a way that he understands it, ie, say you work for YourCo Ltd.

What the idiot should be doing is speaking to the person who owns the property to see if they are happy to let to someone in your situation. They are likely to be fine with it. Go direct, agents like that.

[TheFaQQer]

Just tell them (truthfully) that you work permanently for MarsCorp Ltd and that you can provide payslips if you need them. I'll admit this might be tricky if the company has a similar name and address to your own.

That's the way to do it - my Mrs went looking for a flat for me, told the agency that I was on a three month contract, and they refused to deal with her, since it was a 6 month let. Even though she said we'd take the 6 month let, they refused to even give her a list of properties.

Yes - all agents lie.

[thunderlizard]

I've never had to show accounts, but I reckon that's because you're going about it in a less than optimal way. You don't work "through" your limited company any more than a checkout lass works "through" Tesco's. You work for it.

Just tell them (truthfully) that you work permanently for MarsCorp Ltd and that you can provide payslips if you need them. I'll admit this might be tricky if the company has a similar name and address to your own.