How to find a house to rent
So you are moving to Stoke-on-Trent and you need to find a house to rent? What's the best way to go about it? Here's the Belvoir Stoke-on-Trent quick guide to renting a house!
1) Work out your budget
To rent a house, you will need to consider all your financial obligations such as rent, Council tax, home insurance and utlity bills like water, gas and electric. Perhaps even other financial obligations like credit card payments and so on. Generally speaking, you should budget to find a house up to a maximum of 2.5 times the rent only. For example, if your family income is £1250pcm, you maximum affordability for a house would be a house at £500 per calendar month rent. That is to ensure that you will not be overstretching yourself.
Sometimes, it may be possible to stretch beyond that if you have a lump sum of cash to pay 6 months rent in advance. If you're income is too tight or if you are student, you may be asked to have a guarantor. A guarantor is someone who will also sign the Tenancy Agreement and who will guarantee that you will pay rent and comply with all the legal obligations relating to the tenancy. It is a big obligation for someone to take on. If you for any reason fail to pay your rent, the guarantor can be sued with or without you for the FULL amount.
2. Look at adverts
Now that you have fixed a budget, it's time to find a house! There are many places where houses are advertised; online property portals like On the Market, Rightmove, Zoopla, Primelocation as well as individual agent websites like our Belvoir website (www.belvoir.co.uk). Research the area you would like to live in. How easy will it be to get to work? To school? To the shops? To the park?
Read the description of the houses, see the photos and examine the floorplan. The floorplan will give you the measurements of all the rooms and the layout of the house. Perhaps your sofa won't fit in the room. Perhaps the third bedroom is just a tiny box room that won't fit the bunk beds for your twins. Save yourself a lot of wasted time and costs by doing your research and examining the advertising BEFORE booking a viewing.
3. Viewings
Having filtered the adverts and shortlisted some houses, call the relevant letting agents and book an appointment to view the property.
Make sure you turn up on the appointed date and time or ring the agent in good time to rearrange. Many people waste agents' and landlords' time by simply not turning up for viewings. Since booking viewings is free, we feel many people take it for granted and don't consider that agents and landlords incur costs and time preparing the house, organising the viewings and travelling there. Time and money that could be used helping other customers. So please take the appointment seriously.
Once at the house, ask all your questions! Make notes of all the things you'd like to know about. Then decide which house you are going for!
4. Application
Having chosen a house, ask the agent or landlord for an application form. Fill in the form as best as you can so that the agent or landlord can begin the referencing process.
Typically, agents will check these things:
– Employment checks
– Former landlord references
– Credit check
– Right to Rent check
If you think you will fail any of these, best to discuss it with the agent/landlord before applying for the house. They will be able to advise if you will pass or not. It's best to be upfront.
By employment checks, we mean the agent will check the last 3 months wage slips to ensure you have the affordability to pay the rent. Then they will contact any former landlords to check you were not in arrears or damaged your previous home. Thirdly, the agent will be checking whether you have had issues with debt and ended up with any County Court Judgment, IVAs or Bankruptcy orders. Lastly, the agent will check that you have the right to rent a home in the UK. We do this by checking your passport. If you are British, then you will have the right to rent. If you are a foreign national, your passport and relevant visas (if required by the Home Office) will be required to be evidenced.
Many agents use third party referencing companies to do these checks. You may be asked to provide these documents electronically to the referencing company directly. It is really important that you gather all your documents in readiness for referencing, in order to get through the referencing process swiftly!
Since the Tenant Fee Ban of June 2019, you cannot be asked to pay a referencing fee or application fee. If any agent or landlord has asked you to pay an application fee, query this with them and if they insist it is a fee (not a holding deposit), report them immediately to Trading Standards. You can be asked to pay a Holding Deposit, which cannot be more than one week's rent. This holding deposit is to take the house off the market and to reserve it for you pending the outcome of referencing.
If you failed to disclose something that agents subsequently find out during referencing, that results in you failing the referencing, that holding fee will be forfeited to make up for the lost marketing time, cost of referencing and staff time.
5. Move in
After your referencing has passed, it's time to organise your move in! The agent should do a full move in inventory of the house, that is a photo of all the fixtures and fittings and general condition of the property. You should walk round the house with the inventory before you move your furniture in, to make notes on the inventory of anything you disagree with. Once you agree the inventory or do not notify the agent of changes within a required time such as 7 to 10 days, the inventory will be fixed and will be a record of the house on the day you move in. Later when you move out, the agent will check the condition of the house against this move in inventory. Any damage to the house could then be charged against your inventory.
We hope this has helped you gain a better understanding of the application process and how you can find a rental home.
If you have any questions, give Belvoir Stoke a ring on 01782 478444 and we will be happy to help you through the process…
Ramona Hirschi
Managing Director
