The trials and tribulations of being a guarantor for kids
Discussion
My eldest daughter has just graduated, found herself an interim job and is in the process of moving out of her shared student house and into a shared non-student house.
What a f
kING NIGHTMARE this process is.
She doesn't have a solid employment history, so she needs a guarantor for her rent. Fair enough.
The letting agent have outsourced this process to some kind of 3rd party. Again - fair enough.
However, this 3rd party ONLY work through an online portal, where you have to upload 5 or 6 detailed pieces of information. If they want something more, or have a question, they text you. You can't text them, you can't ring them, you can only go via the portal. If you call their main number, as supplied by the letting agent, you get 3 options. If you pick the "right" option for a prospective tenant, you get a recorded message saying "Look on the portal", and then disconnected. I finally managed to speak with someone by picking the option for a prospective new client.
It turns out that having a pension in drawdown doesn't count as having an income. They will only accept proof of a regular income. A pension fund in drawdown is classed as savings, and they don't count.
I do understand the need for due diligence and protecting landlords, but I think some common sense needs to applied somewhere along the way.
What a f
kING NIGHTMARE this process is.She doesn't have a solid employment history, so she needs a guarantor for her rent. Fair enough.
The letting agent have outsourced this process to some kind of 3rd party. Again - fair enough.
However, this 3rd party ONLY work through an online portal, where you have to upload 5 or 6 detailed pieces of information. If they want something more, or have a question, they text you. You can't text them, you can't ring them, you can only go via the portal. If you call their main number, as supplied by the letting agent, you get 3 options. If you pick the "right" option for a prospective tenant, you get a recorded message saying "Look on the portal", and then disconnected. I finally managed to speak with someone by picking the option for a prospective new client.
It turns out that having a pension in drawdown doesn't count as having an income. They will only accept proof of a regular income. A pension fund in drawdown is classed as savings, and they don't count.
I do understand the need for due diligence and protecting landlords, but I think some common sense needs to applied somewhere along the way.
That's a bit irritating. The company we use at my work are tremendous. Online portal but if you have an issue you can phone them and usually speak to someone within a couple minutes & generally very helpful.
Sounds like the agency is probably using a fairly cheap or semi in house referencing company.
Sounds like the agency is probably using a fairly cheap or semi in house referencing company.
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