[Closed] Letting agencies - is this normal?

I’ve never had to give that sort of info to be guarantor on my kids’ student digs in either Newcastle or Manchester. Just signed a form to say I was responsible for getting the rent paid. One such contract started last month…

Someone with agent in their job title being a prick? Probably.

Doesn’t Guarantor mean you are responsible fir more than just the rent? If they accidentally trash the place you might have to pay for it.

Ask to see their GDPR policy first...

They normally make you liable for whatever the tenancy agreement says, which I’m sure would include damage.

Foot flaps - that’s what I was thinking!

Ask to see their GDPR policy first

This....but at the same time . - they will just move onto the next mug who doesn't ask.

Yes they will, and I’ll be the villain for RUINING EVERYTHING!!!!

We've just had similar experience with eldest_oab's letting agency.

Lots of paperwork, before they would show me the contract. Contract to be signed before the move in, with a statement saying they agree to the inventory and condition. With no inventory, pictures or opportunity to inspect before they sign.

My get out of jail card is that the contract has illegal statements such as (and I paraphrase) 'being a student contract, this means you agree that the Scottish shorthold tenancy laws do not apply', and 'i agree to pay all fees as demanded by the agency. The agency will not supply a list of the fees they charge in writing'... Any later court case will likely be lobbed out by a Sheriff on these two alone.

That sounds like last year’s landlord. Didn’t require a guarantor at least so I gave my advice then left her to it, but he had them unwittingly waive their 28 day notice to leave (although like in your case the documents he drew up were unenforceable), tried to charge them and the new tenants for June, and is being a dick about the deposit. But that’s how they learn I suppose!

Any time you get a bad feeling like this is always worth going through everything again, sounds like the type that'll attempt to whittle away the deposit through damages and so on, a proper agency would be capable of carrying out a credit check within their package that they should be offering to their clients properties.

Always hated renting, had to do it with moves around the country whilst house hunting, you get the professional letting agencies, and the ones that are clearly target driven, last one we had the previous renters had animals, the carpets, curtains, etc stank and the oven was barely wiped down, i think they tried taking about 300 quid off our deposit to get the curtains and oven professionally cleaned, we'd had the carpets done outselves beforehand.

The more info they require the more hassle youre going to get at the end, for minor damage and repairs, also why do they need so much info to rent a room in a grotty converted house, like the ones ive worked in, avoid and look for somewhere else,dont they have student hostels up there or are they full or over priced, if so try and negotiate a lower payment per month.

@thegreatape

My daughter is a student and once again looking for a flat in Edinburgh with her friends. Obviously they all need guarantors which is fine. One of the agencies is demanding 3 months worth of my bank statements and payslips and completion of the guarantor forms before even offering them a tenancy. I understand and don’t object to providing these once they’ve been offered a tenancy or got an agreement, but beforehand seems a bit much – 1) that’s a lot of personal data to end up with any number of letting agencies, and 2), I’m not guaranteeing a tenancy agreement that I’ve not even seen!

Is this normal practice now or shall I tell them to jog on?

Yes, they want everything. 3 months is the norm. You don't even know who are reading your personal details. The only way is to pay off the entire year rent.

But yours is a bit nasty because they want to see your income first before offering to let. Mine is different as the checking of my income only happened after they agreed to let the flat to me.

My estate agent requires to see my income every year. Every year! Even after 3 years of renting at the same flat and never late for rental payment. According to them because I am a zero hour contractor and as such my income might change from year to year. At one point they even wanted me to provide them guarantors and they wanted to see the income of the guarantors as well. In the end I just refer them to the company that gave me the contract and gave them the estimated hour/pay.

Yes, certainly if joint tenancy.
Son started his PhD at Strathclyde last year, the agency (not a fly by night one, seated with 'F') demanded a guarantor for him, I was happy but apparently didn't earn e enough as self employed to cut the mustard - I had to get one of my good friends in Glasgow to act as son's guarantor, cost me a bottle of decent whisky 🙂

I thought it was pretty poor really, I don't have many / any relatives that could step in, good that had friends that could.

I don’t mind the guarantor but, just seems a bit intrusive. Having said that, I spoke to the agency this morning to see what they needed and without any prompting the lady went into detail about how they treat the information provided by guarantors and it was clear they were very hot on GDPR and so on.

... it was clear they were very hot on GDPR and so on.

Who wouldn't say that?
As long as you know who you provide the details to you might be able to minimize any potential headaches.

Edinburgh? Assume that deposit is already gone!

Even the good ones are crooked (our last one drives the wee fleet of red minis about the city...), we effectively paid for them to sparkle clean the place just to make it easier for them to lease to the next person, and this was after getting an email from the owner of the property absolutely gushing with praise about how clean we had left the place. The agent even tried to gouge us a ridiculous amount to replace some failed LED fittings that the owner had already admitted to having replaced out of his own pocket.

I don't know how tight their profit margins to justify it, I can only assume if they weren't allowed to fleece tenants this way they would just find another way.

According to them because I am a zero hour contractor and as such my income might change from year to year. At one point they even wanted me to provide them guarantors and they wanted to see the income of the guarantors as well.

Is that even legal?? What would they have done if you couldn't provide proof of what your income was?

Is that even legal?? What would they have done if you couldn’t provide proof of what your income was?

I don't know if that is legal but I could not find a place within my budget so just give them whatever they wanted. This flat is reasonable and not far from my workplace so save on travelling expenses.

No proof no rent as the estate agent told me.

Since my pay comes in bits and pieces they wanted guarantors (banks, workplace contracts or people that can pay for me in case ...), so I spoke to the company HR to ask for help and they gave the estate agent my total income forecast for the year (which is more than enough to cover everything). The estate agent accepted but I have to do this every year when I need to renew my tenancy contract.

Total cost to rent a 2 room flat for me is £11,261 per year (rent, gas, electricity, water, TV licence, Internet broadband, council tax, car park). My food bill add around £3,000 per year and perhaps around £300 for clothing, then add MOT and petrol for car. So estimated survival total is around £15K per year in the North East. In London probably £20k to £25k just to survive.