Should I proceed with offering a tenancy agreement?

I think some of these “reasons” not to let to this couple are crazy, and very judgmental.

1. The lack of guarantor. Why is it that so many of you view a tenant who is unable to get a guarantor as a risk, and wouldn’t rent to them? If you have family, then you might have a family member whose circumstances enable them to act as your guarantor. But often, the family members don’t meet the requirements, especially in London and other expensive areas. When my parents were alive, I was lucky, because before they retired, they earned over £36,000 a year. But what if they hadn’t? I wouldn’t have had my pick of properties.

Then my parents retired. I found that even though my parents had more than enough in savings to easily be my guarantor, many landlords wouldn’t accept them, as it was “working guarantor only”. With no other living relatives except my brother, I was restricted but could still get a place as I had a guarantor.

But then my father died suddenly. Suddenly it was harder, as for some reason, my mum having savings of £200,000 plus, and her own house, weren’t as acceptable as a guarantor, so it was hard to get somewhere, despite being a proper tenant.

Then my mum’s dementia became so bad she had to go into a nursing home, and my brother had to sell my mum’s house to pay for her care. We hadn’t spoken in years, because he isn’t a good person. But I still turned to him when yet another landlord decided to sell the house from under me. His choice, but my home was gone, and I have severe autism, severe fibromyalgia, and severe chronic fatigue, so I was restricted to the type of housing which I could live in already. Top floor flats with no lifts were out of the question, as were houseshares and anywhere noisy.

However, my brother’s finances just didn’t stretch to enough. We made peace, and he tried his best, but his income was not enough to pass referencing. The amount that was being asked for was crazy, and all the agents and landlords all wanted the same amount. So it wasn’t that “nobody trusted me”, it was that I had no family member who passed the guarantor’s financial referencing, and no “friend” is going to agree to such a financial risk. You guys need to understand this. Some people are lucky, and have plenty of family members who can afford to be guarantor, and have no problem doing it. But many people don’t have that privilege. It is NOT a reflection on us as people. You could get someone with a guarantor who defaults on their rent and trashed the place, then when you turn to the guarantor tor, they also refuse to pay up and ignore your calls and written correspondence, when your other choice had no guarantor, but is paying their rent on time where they have gone to live instead and is taking great care of the place.

2. Then this case with one of the couple being on UC. So what? They are actively looking for employment, so are claiming UC in the meantime, and won’t be claiming the Housing Element, because their partner is in full-time employment, and will be paying the rent in full with their income.

3. That it’s a “red flag’” and “dodgy” that this couple can pay a whole year’s rent in advance, yet can only just afford the rent. It’s pretty obvious what has happened. The person on UC has obviously only recently lost their job during Covid, and this couple are very responsible people who save money, rather than spending it all at once. These are the type of tenant who WILL pay next year’s rent early, who WILL look after the place!!! Responsible people save money, in case they need it. Irresponsible people don’t do that.

As for me, I have never put a foot wrong, but I became homeless last year after being illegally evicted and put in a hotel with drug addicts, drug dealers, and the most violent people you can imagine. I had a nervous breakdown and tried to kill myself. The council refused me further help, and I ended up very ill, all alone, spending the £3,000 I had spent in hotels, begging on the internet for someone to take me in. Someone did in the end, and I have ended up in supported living.

But I can’t find any landlord to accept me because I don’t have a guarantor. Social services want me out of here and in my place with 24 hour support there instead. So I am in this horrible supported living place with loads of petty rules. All because I have no family members who are able to be my guarantor.

Blame illegal immigrants

Reply to the comment left by Vulnerable Tenant at 28/07/2021 - 14:39
You can thank Shelter, Generation Rent, Acorn, LRU, and all the other so called homeless charities who've successfully lobbied Government to increase Landlords costs and risks, to point where Landlords have to be extremely careful to whom they rent their properties to. As getting a rogue tenants can cost many thousands of pounds in lost rent and legal costs, plus a lot of anguish & hassle, to regain possession.
How else would you propose a Landlord protect himself?

What have illegal immigrants got to do with anything? They are hardly taking up rental properties as we have to vet who we rent to in terms of their resident status and they are not given enough money by the government to eat let alone rent a place.

So we can agree then, that they are living below the radar, for live they do.
So given that they are still taking up inadequate space resources by various means, what effect must this be having on the available accommodation, legal or otherwise, directly or otherwise?
By the way, I do not put all the blame on the immigrants.
The UK allowed this to happen and compounded the problem.
So what does the future hold?
More "Rent - a coffins"?
Float people out on pontoons to live on?
That psychopath that manages to combine complete idiocy with influential genius, Elon Musk, running bus trips to Mars?
Martian Rent – a - coffins perhaps?

I have been a landlord for 48 years and in that time have let to thousands of tenants across my varied portfolio I have never asked a tenant for a reference we do our own checks I do not use RGI but take guarantors when possible about 27% of tenancies
In 48 years I have lost about thirty six thousand in rent arrears less than one quarter of one percent of rental income but as a result of discriminatory and unjust tax legislation have been denied in excess of one million pounds of earned income by the government
For every pound earned I am charged 47% more tax on rental income than I pay on income from my other businesses
In respect of acceptance of tenants with less than perfect credit/ reference scores I would suggest you do the maths and compare the costs of the likelihood of rent arrears against the cost of rental voids if you have high demand you can afford to be choosey , you cannot recoup the losses on voids so again do the maths
Regarding referencing and RGI I would suggest you spend your money on specialist tax advisors as the government will take you for far greater amounts than defaulting tenants ever will