HOW can we rent in the UK?!?!
Dec 12th 2014, 5:44 am
#47
Forum Regular
Joined: Aug 2012
Location: Hua Hin, Thailand
Posts: 75
Re: HOW can we rent in the UK?!?!
This thread has three pages of information about renting in the UK, contributed (in good faith, albeit with occasional frustration) by people who've already made the move. It could be useful to anyone else trying to relocate, and I don't think it's very fair to delete it just because you're taking a tricky situation as a personal slight. People have been trying to help.
To be honest we've never considered the problems we might encounter when we return, so this thread has been a wake up call and very informative.
As a retired Civil Servant with a fairly good pension I was hoping that might suffice, I doubt if a reference from my Thai landlord, who is Israeli, or a Thai credit report would carry any weight, we will just have to see.
Dec 12th 2014, 6:34 am
#48
Forum Regular
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 175
Re: HOW can we rent in the UK?!?!
I realize you are feeling very stressed but I was only trying to help and instead of acknowledging that you are biting my head off 
With respect it has been mentioned numerous times on BE by different people that when renting in the UK with no UK credit history people often have to pay 6 months up front. I think it is understandable that a landlord would like some security when renting to someone he can't even get a credit report on or a reference from a previous landlord.
As I said it IS much harder and more expensive to rent when you have a dog. You originally were not planning to bring your dog and mentioned that you had several families who wanted her to be rehomed with them.
Regarding a holiday cottage we rented one for 12 weeks (without a dog) and got a great rate (much lower than the rate listed on the website) because of the length of the booking. It worked out cheaper than if we had been renting an empty place and paying utilities so that was why I mentioned it as perhaps being a possible option.
I am very sorry that you are having difficulty but you have limited yourself greatly by not researching and planning for renting without a UK credit history, WITH a dog and with out a car. All of these factors are making things difficult for you. Sometimes it can be good to step back from a problem and see what can be changed to improve the situation. If you still have families lining up to have your dog perhaps you should reconsider that option, you would save her airfare and increase rental opportunities. As long as you are careful who she goes to she will be perfectly happy.
Not having a car is also greatly limiting where you can rent and probably increasing the cost of the rental as you need to be close to public transport. Are you able to stay in Canada a little longer and save up for a cheap car?
As I said before if you are able to delay joining your husband for a little longer then it would help with renting since he would then have UK pay slips, bank statements, credit history to show.
All of these things would help improve your choice and price of rentals.
I do feel for you it is super stressful moving to a new country and the Christmas Holiday is not a great time to choose to be doing all this. You did know going into this that bringing your dog would be expensive and make renting difficult. It would not have been difficult to find out that having no UK credit history might result in being asked for 6 months up front. I don't think the letting agents are "stupid" they are just typical for market and you have chosen to put yourself in a situation where your options are limited.
As for people being "nice" when you get there, well people are people some will be "nice" some not so nice. You aren't doing them a favor by moving there so I wouldn't expect any special treatment. I also think that if someone is "nice" enough to try to help by throwing out some possible ideas to help it is "nice" to acknowledge that even if you think their ideas are useless.
With respect it has been mentioned numerous times on BE by different people that when renting in the UK with no UK credit history people often have to pay 6 months up front. I think it is understandable that a landlord would like some security when renting to someone he can't even get a credit report on or a reference from a previous landlord.
As I said it IS much harder and more expensive to rent when you have a dog. You originally were not planning to bring your dog and mentioned that you had several families who wanted her to be rehomed with them.
Regarding a holiday cottage we rented one for 12 weeks (without a dog) and got a great rate (much lower than the rate listed on the website) because of the length of the booking. It worked out cheaper than if we had been renting an empty place and paying utilities so that was why I mentioned it as perhaps being a possible option.
I am very sorry that you are having difficulty but you have limited yourself greatly by not researching and planning for renting without a UK credit history, WITH a dog and with out a car. All of these factors are making things difficult for you. Sometimes it can be good to step back from a problem and see what can be changed to improve the situation. If you still have families lining up to have your dog perhaps you should reconsider that option, you would save her airfare and increase rental opportunities. As long as you are careful who she goes to she will be perfectly happy.
Not having a car is also greatly limiting where you can rent and probably increasing the cost of the rental as you need to be close to public transport. Are you able to stay in Canada a little longer and save up for a cheap car?
As I said before if you are able to delay joining your husband for a little longer then it would help with renting since he would then have UK pay slips, bank statements, credit history to show.
All of these things would help improve your choice and price of rentals.
I do feel for you it is super stressful moving to a new country and the Christmas Holiday is not a great time to choose to be doing all this. You did know going into this that bringing your dog would be expensive and make renting difficult. It would not have been difficult to find out that having no UK credit history might result in being asked for 6 months up front. I don't think the letting agents are "stupid" they are just typical for market and you have chosen to put yourself in a situation where your options are limited.
As for people being "nice" when you get there, well people are people some will be "nice" some not so nice. You aren't doing them a favor by moving there so I wouldn't expect any special treatment. I also think that if someone is "nice" enough to try to help by throwing out some possible ideas to help it is "nice" to acknowledge that even if you think their ideas are useless.
This is a good post and spot on to what we experienced when we moved over in Jan with 2 dogs.
we looked at a holiday cottage as a plan B. We had 2 dogs and no credit history and we ended up paying 6 months in advance plus the fees and an extra 100 quid deposit for the dogs. i had a job with an above average salary and we are just about the best demergrphic you could get for renting but because i worked overseas they wouldnt accept the pay slips even my son inlaw offering to be guarantor did not work, our agent was not that good and struggled with the fact there was a time difference between here and Australia and couldnt work out when to phone!!! i kid you not.
I think the mind set of the agents is to try and get the 6 months off of expats/imergrants as it looks safer for the landlord also these agents double dip as the landlord also pays a fee.
Good luck with the move
Last edited by SUPERCAD; Dec 12th 2014 at 6:36 am.
Dec 12th 2014, 11:27 am
#49
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Sep 2008
Location: Rural Virginia
Posts: 1,076
Re: HOW can we rent in the UK?!?!
Unless the rules have changed you should have a refrigerator included in the rental.
The definition of furnished accommodation is stove, refrigerator, curtains and carpet.
Outside London with the exception of a holiday let most properties are let on this basis.
The definition of furnished accommodation is stove, refrigerator, curtains and carpet.
Outside London with the exception of a holiday let most properties are let on this basis.
Dec 12th 2014, 11:30 am
#50
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Joined: Nov 2014
Location: London
Posts: 556
Re: HOW can we rent in the UK?!?!
Things must have changed since my sister and her family used to rent. They had 3 houses in Northampton and Nottingham and all were furnished. This was in the 1990s though.
Dec 12th 2014, 11:43 am
#51
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Joined: Jul 2002
Location: Dreich Alba
Posts: 12,005
Re: HOW can we rent in the UK?!?!
Dec 12th 2014, 12:02 pm
#52
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Joined: Sep 2008
Location: Rural Virginia
Posts: 1,076
Re: HOW can we rent in the UK?!?!
We have a house in a village 4 miles from Aylesbury and ideally would like to rent it furnished to give us a base if we wanted to spend a couple of months in Europe. Over the years I have asked several letting agents large and small if we could let it furnished and they all said there was very little demand for fully furnished property.
Dec 12th 2014, 12:08 pm
#53
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Joined: Nov 2014
Location: London
Posts: 556
Re: HOW can we rent in the UK?!?!
It's strange, you'd think theere'd be a market for both furnished and unfurnished.
Dec 12th 2014, 12:25 pm
#54
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 603
Re: HOW can we rent in the UK?!?!
You are understandably feeling super stressed a move like this IS really stressful and I think most of us here have BTDT and so we have some idea of how you are feeling. Some days it seems like it's all too much and that you are hitting nothing but road blocks.
I honestly think that if you re-read the posts on this thread you will see that there is a ton of great advice and suggestions plus a lot of encouragement and empathy.
I am afraid that I did get frustrated with you because you did not seem to be "listening" to any of it but I am sorry because I should have been more gentle in my approach because I know how easy it is to hear only the negative when you are feeling stressed and overwhelmed.
Have a good cry and then take a deep breath and maybe a day or two or even a just a few hours break from thinking about it all and then come back to it fresh. It's not life and death and you will find a solution that will work for your family, whether that is taking on board some of the suggestions on this thread or something completely different.
Good luck!
p.s I agree with Moshi Moshi it would be good to leave this thread up because there is so much info on it that would be helpful to lots of other people.
Dec 13th 2014, 3:37 am
#55
Forum Regular
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 71
Re: HOW can we rent in the UK?!?!
So if you pay six months upfront, does that mean you don't start paying the rent again until that six months is up?
Dec 13th 2014, 5:52 pm
#58
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Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 373
Re: HOW can we rent in the UK?!?!
We moved to UK from Canada in Sept/Oct. My partner came over three weeks before me to find somewhere to rent, I stayed to close up the house we sold.
We rented a holiday let for 6 months, so it came furnished. Yes we paid the full six months rent up front because we had no credit history and no one here who could act as a guarantor.
We are both retired so there was no possibility of showing an income either.
The rental advert said "no pets" - in fact majority of places my partner saw said the same. After seeing the place, however, partner asked whether landlord would accept two cats...it was not a problem.
Sorry for your stress. My experience so far is that there are lots of things that are a pain..though interestingly enough not getting on NHS. for NHS all I had to show was photo ID (Canadian passport), and fill out a form. making partner's bank account a joint one with me, however, was more difficult. That took close to two months.
My advice it try not to stress and accept the fact that things are going to be a pain for a while until you get yourself established.
We rented a holiday let for 6 months, so it came furnished. Yes we paid the full six months rent up front because we had no credit history and no one here who could act as a guarantor.
We are both retired so there was no possibility of showing an income either.
The rental advert said "no pets" - in fact majority of places my partner saw said the same. After seeing the place, however, partner asked whether landlord would accept two cats...it was not a problem.
Sorry for your stress. My experience so far is that there are lots of things that are a pain..though interestingly enough not getting on NHS. for NHS all I had to show was photo ID (Canadian passport), and fill out a form. making partner's bank account a joint one with me, however, was more difficult. That took close to two months.
My advice it try not to stress and accept the fact that things are going to be a pain for a while until you get yourself established.
Dec 15th 2014, 2:03 pm
#59
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Joined: Sep 2008
Location: Rural Virginia
Posts: 1,076
Re: HOW can we rent in the UK?!?!
The last time I mentioned letting fully furnished an agent told me another issue apart from lack of demand was a change in regulations which required all furniture to be made with flame retardant material.
Dec 15th 2014, 2:09 pm
#60
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Joined: Nov 2014
Location: London
Posts: 556
Re: HOW can we rent in the UK?!?!
That explains it. Probably also the landlord not wanting to do an itinery of everything in the flat or house.