SarahH2010

Hi everybody,

I am a UK citizen, I have been living USA for many years and I'm finally making moves to return to the UK with my son this summer. I am looking for a rental in the UK and as my son will need to be in school, we need this asap so we can provide an address to make his school application. The problem appears to be how I can show proof of income for housing applications. I have been working as self employed for the last 3 years in the USA, (11 months as an LLC which I created last year). My LLC is just me and I work remotely. I will be doing the exact same work in the UK, same clients, income etc, just not under my USA LLC, instead I'll be registering as self employed in the UK and dissolving my USA LLC.

When speaking to UK based real estate agents they are telling me that they will not consider the past three years of my USA 'self-employed/business' income, and that essentially the 'clock will restart' in the UK on my income history. According to them, this means I will need to be able to show 12 months of self employed income in the UK before I can apply for a rental unless I have a guarantor (which I don't think will be possible). The income issues aside, real estates agents are also is telling me I need to physically be in the UK to even be considered so I can't secure anywhere until I arrive. I have set up an airbnb for the first month on my arrival to the UK, and after this I have some family I can stay with temporarily, but I'll be switching between families homes every couple of weeks due to space, so that is not a medium/long-term solution.

I could show savings to cover 6 months rent up front (although these are currently held in my USA bank account) and if it makes a difference, I have held a UK bank account and have been paying voluntary contributions tax etc in the UK while abroad.

Has anybody had this experience and how have they navigated this? Also, if I can't even list my families homes as a 'permanent' address in the interim how do I put my son into school lol? I've tried to get creative and look for residential parks to potentially purchase a cheap mobile home but there's nothing in the area that I am moving too!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Pulaski

If you are moving close to family members, as a purely practical point, there is nothing much that a school can to if you tell them that you are living in that home and give that address - it's not like they can send round an inspector to kick down the door and count the beds. Would using a family address be against "the rules"? Maybe, but if it is a short term temporary arrangement, and isn't done for fraudulent reasons, then there isn't really anything that can be done, after all there are many extended family and/or multigenerational households in the UK and nobody bats an eyelid about those.

Also, I would recommend that you look for rentals directly online/ direct with private landlords, as they are much more likely to be flexible and understanding of your circumstances - whereas, not unreasonablt, estate agents/ property managers are very protective of their client's properties and are bound by various rules and regulations to protect their clients that a private landlord could choose to ignore. Obviously I'm not talking about cleanliness, state of repair, and safety regulations, but if a private landlord chooses to accept a recent arrival as a tenant then the credit risk is on the landlord himself. .... You should find that offering to pay 3-6 months rent up front will be acceptable to a private landlord. That said, a short initial period in an Airbnb, while looking for a longer term place to rent, is a good idea.

SarahH2010

Thank you so much for your response. Yes I think direct private landlords may be the way to go. Re the family address, yes definitely not fraud, just desperation lol, and temporary. I guess my question next is which address I put down as I will be bouncing between two addresses but as they are 10 mins away from each other in the same town and school catchment area it does make things easier. It may simply be a case of me listing the address to the one that I'm staying at during the time of the school application. Again, thank you so much for your reply.

Pollyana

I'm moving back next week and have managed to secure a rental in advance. It took some determination but it shows it can be done. I've rented through an agency, and at least two other agencies had been prepared to work something out if I had found the right property.
I'm moving back with pretty good savings, had a good work history in Australia but won't be working for a while after I arrived. Also had a good reference from my current landlord. I sent the UK agent bank statements from here, and from my UK account to show I was moving my savings over to the UK. I offered to pay 6 months upfront but in the end they didn't need it. I have family in the UK who are property owners and another option the agents suggested was that I could have got a member of the family to act as a guarantor.
Don't give up because one agent says you must be in the UK. That isn't the case, if the agent and the owner/landlord are happy, thats what matters. The biggest estate agent in Brighton laughed at me when I said I wanted to rent before arrival, and told me it couldn't be done. All the others were really helpful, and no one else gave me a blanket "no way", most said it would vary depending on the property and the owner.
Good luck

SarahH2010

Thank you! That is very reassuring to hear. Yes I did feel like a few agencies were laughing at me even though I was pretty sure it couldn't be absolutely impossible lol. I'm going to start getting all my paperwork in order now (bank account statements etc) and as you say, proof of a UK bank account to move savings into would be good. Unfortunately, I don't have a recommendation from a landlord and we have owned over the past few years, but I can definitely show a history of on time mortgage payments and maybe get some character references from friends/family. Good luck with your move next week - I hope it all goes really well!