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Renting in Adelaide

Renting in Adelaide

Old Sep 4th 2008, 2:36 am
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Default Renting in Adelaide

Can anyone offer any advice on renting in Adelaide as a new arrival without an employer reference?
We recently arrived in Adelaide (staying with family) and are looking for a place to rent. We are a married couple, no children or pets,have plenty of previous rental references from the UK, and local character references (my husband is an aussie) but we haven't yet secured employment so can't offer employment references.
Meeting rental payments until we secure work isn't a problem as we have savings in the bank - but the rental agents we've seen at the two viewings we have been to so far seem to think us not having employment will be a problem in us securing a tenancy.
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Old Sep 4th 2008, 3:58 am
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Default Re: Renting in Adelaide

Originally Posted by donovandenese
Can anyone offer any advice on renting in Adelaide as a new arrival without an employer reference?
We recently arrived in Adelaide (staying with family) and are looking for a place to rent. We are a married couple, no children or pets,have plenty of previous rental references from the UK, and local character references (my husband is an aussie) but we haven't yet secured employment so can't offer employment references.
Meeting rental payments until we secure work isn't a problem as we have savings in the bank - but the rental agents we've seen at the two viewings we have been to so far seem to think us not having employment will be a problem in us securing a tenancy.
Hi, we were in the same situation. When we applied for the house we wanted, we included a statement of Balance (all our funds were in Oz at this point) to show that we could afford to pay the rent. We applied for 2 properties and were offered both.

So, if you can prove you have the funds, and you have references that can be checked, you should have no problems.

D
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Old Sep 4th 2008, 6:09 am
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Default Re: Renting in Adelaide

Originally Posted by dainty
Hi, we were in the same situation. When we applied for the house we wanted, we included a statement of Balance (all our funds were in Oz at this point) to show that we could afford to pay the rent. We applied for 2 properties and were offered both.

So, if you can prove you have the funds, and you have references that can be checked, you should have no problems.

D
thanks, thats a good idea re a statement of funds - we've just viewed a property in Unley that we've fallen in love with so we're going to put in an application tomorrow and see how it goes. Unfortunately there seemed to be other people interested too so if I expect they will be preferred if they are employed.
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Old Sep 5th 2008, 8:29 am
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Default Re: Renting in Adelaide

we put in an application today - included proof of our funds, plus copies of our rental, character and previous employment references, plus their contact details. have to wait til next week now apparently and see which applicant they choose. We also offered to pay more than 1 month up front and/or sign up to a lease over 12months too.

not used to this way of renting - waiting to see if you are the applicant picked - back home it was more first come first served! doesn't help that I am feeling homesick and loved the house - so will be gutted if we don't get it!

we considered offering a bit extra per week than the rental price they were asking for but OH thought that sounded too much like bribery - has anyone done that??
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Old Sep 5th 2008, 10:09 am
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Default Re: Renting in Adelaide

why not offer to pay 2 months rent as deposit, or pay the full 6 months rent in advance? with bank refs to show you have enough funds, id imagine theyd be more than happy - ive certainly read of people doing this, over the last 4 years or so!!

good luck,

sue
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Old Sep 5th 2008, 10:12 am
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Default Re: Renting in Adelaide

Originally Posted by donovandenese
we put in an application today - included proof of our funds, plus copies of our rental, character and previous employment references, plus their contact details. have to wait til next week now apparently and see which applicant they choose. We also offered to pay more than 1 month up front and/or sign up to a lease over 12months too.

not used to this way of renting - waiting to see if you are the applicant picked - back home it was more first come first served! doesn't help that I am feeling homesick and loved the house - so will be gutted if we don't get it!

we considered offering a bit extra per week than the rental price they were asking for but OH thought that sounded too much like bribery - has anyone done that??
I would say if you really want it, offering another $5 or $10 per week to get it isn't a bad idea as long as you wouldn't feel you were paying well over the odds for it. I know it feels like bribery but to be honest Landlords are often swayed by this......but not always!!!!! In regard to the not having employment, just offer to pay the first 3 months in advance which again should make you a more attractive candidate. Good luck, hope you get it.
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Old Sep 5th 2008, 12:17 pm
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Default Re: Renting in Adelaide

Originally Posted by donovandenese
Can anyone offer any advice on renting in Adelaide as a new arrival without an employer reference?
We recently arrived in Adelaide (staying with family) and are looking for a place to rent. We are a married couple, no children or pets,have plenty of previous rental references from the UK, and local character references (my husband is an aussie) but we haven't yet secured employment so can't offer employment references.
Meeting rental payments until we secure work isn't a problem as we have savings in the bank - but the rental agents we've seen at the two viewings we have been to so far seem to think us not having employment will be a problem in us securing a tenancy.
It could be because your OH is Australian that the rental agents think it could be a problem - because they expect him to have the work history, character references etc that all other Aussie applicants have.

Maybe try being crafty and getting him to stay silent and let you do the talking. Say you've just moved here from the UK and that you obviously haven't got all of the required credentials, but can offer up to 6/12 months rent in advance. That and having a couple of local references should do it
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Old Sep 6th 2008, 3:43 am
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Default Re: Renting in Adelaide

Originally Posted by Wendy
It could be because your OH is Australian that the rental agents think it could be a problem - because they expect him to have the work history, character references etc that all other Aussie applicants have.

Maybe try being crafty and getting him to stay silent and let you do the talking. Say you've just moved here from the UK and that you obviously haven't got all of the required credentials, but can offer up to 6/12 months rent in advance. That and having a couple of local references should do it
we've done the first proper application so will see what they come back with next week - fingers crossed because we loved the house!

We included 3 local Aussie character references each, plus one joint UK and one joint Aussie rental reference, plus UK employment references each, plus an offer to pay additional rent in advance (although i read online somewhere that landlords aren't legally allowed to accept additional advance rent - but we thought it was still worth offering), a statement of our funds, an explanation about how we have just relocated to Adelaide after living & working in the UK for the last 6 years etc etc.

all our possessions arrive by ship in three weeks so its fingers crossed as MIL would get a shock if our bags/boxes/furniture had to take over her house!!
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Old Sep 8th 2008, 6:57 am
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Default Re: Renting in Adelaide

well - we didn't get the house not because of jobs or anything we thought might be a problem. turns out another applicant wanted to agree to a 3 year fixed term lease, and her referee was a golf partner of the prospective landlord. we couldn't compete with that - we would hope to be buying before 3 years have gone by! we tried offereing extra rent per week and agreeing to a 2 year lease but no luck.
looks like we will have to keep searching.
then i found my dream job - only to get most of the way through the application and then be told it was for aussie citizens only tried emailing to ask if they would accept an application from a perm resident but was told no.
its obviously not my day..
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Old Sep 8th 2008, 8:10 am
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Default Re: Renting in Adelaide

Originally Posted by donovandenese
well - we didn't get the house not because of jobs or anything we thought might be a problem. turns out another applicant wanted to agree to a 3 year fixed term lease, and her referee was a golf partner of the prospective landlord. we couldn't compete with that - we would hope to be buying before 3 years have gone by! we tried offereing extra rent per week and agreeing to a 2 year lease but no luck.
looks like we will have to keep searching.
then i found my dream job - only to get most of the way through the application and then be told it was for aussie citizens only tried emailing to ask if they would accept an application from a perm resident but was told no.
its obviously not my day..
Sorry to hear that you didn't get the house. I'm sure you will find another one really soon that you love!

Regarding renting, we used our short term rental landlord as our referee for our longer term rental, plus we had written character references from our former jobs. They did get used. When we were looking for rentals OH was working only on a casual basis, and at the time I wasn't working, so we showed them banking details. We didn't offer extra money or offer so many extra months in advance, although I can see the benefit if the area/property is highly desirable.

What a pain to get so far through the application and then find that out. :curse: I would have been evil!
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