briwi

Hi All - moving to Sydney in 27 days. We'll be renting an apartment there and I'm just wondering what experience people have had of how long approval etc took once they found somewhere

And also what references the agents required. I spoke to one who said 'need employers reference' - but i've been self employed for 9 years and 'past landlord' and I've owned my own home for 20 years so don't have either of those. Anyone else in the same situation and what did you show them to prove you're trustworthy?

yanH

Hi,

The process for us was really quick from saying we'll take it. I think we got the keys a week later and the landlord had to move out in this time as well.

We were worried about getting the references as well as we had always owned our own home in the UK. What the Letting Agent did here was to contact the Estate Agent that had sold our house in the UK to confirm that we had really sold the house and they took this as evidence that we were financially reliable

In terms of the employment I can't help there sorry as I am in permanent employment. Our letting agent contacted my Employer to ask if she thought we could pay the rent. She just answered yes and that was it complete waste of time. As she said she knew nothing of our financial affairs so it was a complete waste of time. I suppose what might help is getting some clients or something to agree to provide a reference for you and some proof of income if that's possible.

stevemich

We provided a mortgage statement showing the payments we made when we owned the house (on time etc), and bank statement showing the equity from the sale as proof of financial capability to pay.

With our application we also provided up front my offer letter from my employer showing annual salary, a personal reference, and a reference for the dog (!)...

I think having all the pieces of paper to attach to your application helps as you look organised, and the agent has to do the minimum work to assess you. Worked a treat, as in a rental in a week from when we viewed it.

Mike H

Hi there

Hope this link helps, it rambles a bit but it covers how we found our way through the rental process in Melbourne three months back (our landlord references were never followed up on).

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...03#post4250403

Good luck

Mike & Jayne

DrWho

We just provided copies of our passports and driving licences (Oz) and offered to pay extra on the bond because we wanted to keep 2 dogs and also offered 3 months up front... No problem, got the first house we applied for... (about the 15th we viewed...)

TillyG

We had no rental history either as we had owned our own home in the UK for 6yrs when we moved here last year. I just went armed with all my mortgage statements to prove that we were good reliable payers.

I also took in my husband's work contract showing his salary. And they phoned his immediate boss just to make sure he really worked there.

This was the first place I liked enough to apply for and we got it It was a horrid couple of weeks though as I just saw so many places and began to get really jaded by it all. It was fortunate that I wasn't working and that we'd got ourselves a hire car for a month so it meant I could up and go and see places outside of the normal 10min viewings on a saturday morning.

Sam

We just showed our passports with visa,

didn't have to show anything else, which peed me off a bit coz being dilligent i brought a small suitcase of paper work with us for refs, never needed any of it!

Oh do bring a copy of your no claims bonus (if you have it) this was the only thing that we've had to produce, they will take it into consideration for your car ins!