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Private Let - Guarantor Advice
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Im looking to move to a new private rented flat at the moment. I went to view one last week and I was given an application for a tenancy from the letting agent. Its quite an extensive application and asks for a lot of information, which i know is fairly common these days.
The agency do a credit check as standard which i explained i would in all likelyhood not pass. They said that was fine as long as I could provide a guarantor, my mother agreed to act as a guarantor for me as she works full time and is a homeowner.
The agent told me that all they do is check with the guarantors employer that the details on the guarantor form are correct which my mum is fine with but they mentioned checking salary details and ive also heard that some guarantor forms request the persons bank details.
My mum wasnt best pleased to have to disclose her salary to the letting agent and i think would have a real problem with supplying her bank details to them.
I am going into the letting agents office to hand in my application along with a holding deposit but i will request to see the guarantor form and confirm with my mum that she is happy to provide all details required before i hand over any money.
I was just wondering if anyone's had any experience in acting as a guarantor for a private let property through a letting agent and what details you had to provide on the guarantor form.
All advice is welcome, thanks.
The agency do a credit check as standard which i explained i would in all likelyhood not pass. They said that was fine as long as I could provide a guarantor, my mother agreed to act as a guarantor for me as she works full time and is a homeowner.
The agent told me that all they do is check with the guarantors employer that the details on the guarantor form are correct which my mum is fine with but they mentioned checking salary details and ive also heard that some guarantor forms request the persons bank details.
My mum wasnt best pleased to have to disclose her salary to the letting agent and i think would have a real problem with supplying her bank details to them.
I am going into the letting agents office to hand in my application along with a holding deposit but i will request to see the guarantor form and confirm with my mum that she is happy to provide all details required before i hand over any money.
I was just wondering if anyone's had any experience in acting as a guarantor for a private let property through a letting agent and what details you had to provide on the guarantor form.
All advice is welcome, thanks.
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Comments
Don't know why they would want bank details unless they want a reference from their bank (which would be fair enough).
I've been a guarantor. I think they required me to have a certain income (c. £18K) which I didn't have, at least not in an acceptable form (I would have needed to submit accounts etc but I was not going to that much trouble).
This agent was accommodating however and they waived the normal requirements provided four months' deposit was given instead of one one.
But: you don't want to do that if there is a choice. Our deposit was eventually returned (100% too; very unusual); you might not be as lucky.
And I would not give out bank account details; what are they intending to do with that information? Withdraw rent money if you get into arrears? That would have to be authorised by the guarantor.
I would guess that in quite a few cases the guarantor is actually paying the rent - so it might be nothing more sinister than that.
They said that it was so they could check that her wages were getting paid into that account, but as they would contact her employer and confirm her salary we didnt really see why they required the bank details in addition to an employment and credit check on her.
Also to reference the post above the rent would have been paid by standing order from my bank account.
I spoke to my current landlord today and i negoitated a lower rate of rent for another property he owns so hopefully i'll get that and he doesn't require a credit check or guarantor so don't see any problems there
That doesn't make sense. The agent wouldn't have the authority to look into the account to see what's going in and out.
Perhaps speak to other agents, and ask if this is common. Then you can negotiate with the agent. But dealing directly with a landlord is better, as you seem to be doing.
It didn't make sense to me either, i questioned the letting agent on the phone and said that if they knew her salary and confirmed that she did indeed earn that salary with her companies HR dept then there's no reason for them to have her bank details as obv her wages would get paid into her account.
From speaking to other people I know who have acted as guarantors and have had guarantors for private rented properties none of them required bank details so i don't think it's something that is done as standard.
Yeah I spoke to my landlord on the phone today, he owns and rents out literaly hundreds of properties and he had an apartment to let in the town that im looking to move to but as it's a luxury apartment and newly built it was quite pricey. I asked him if the rental price was negotiable and he said that as I had been a tenant of his for 3 years and was being reasonable he'd knock £50 pcm off the rental price, which was unbeleivably decent of him so im hoping to speak to his agent tomorrow and get that confirmed and hopefully moved in a week or two.
Thanks for all the comments and advice, this is hopefully a happy ending to the story