Hi. My husband and I are moving to Glasgow from USA. We sold our house and made a good profit so we can pay 6 months up front…for YEARS. We do not have jobs but our professions are a part of the labor shortage in UK. We have never made a late payment on anything in our lives and our USA credit is excellent which probably means nothing in UK. Do we need to offer more than the posted rent? I am going to be in Glasgow May 25th and have basically two weeks to find an apartment before I would need to get a short term rental which I really dont want to do. Any advice or any landlords seeing this. our budget is 1500 GBP MAX. Trying to stay in the 1100-1300 range.
actually there is a way for UK landlords to check your rental history in the USA, there is a database that can be checked. i forget the name but you can find it.
Well that’s great! Do you think a lot of UK landlords will take the time/pay to use one of those looks like TransUnion and and tenantverify?
With the RRB coming in soon advance payments will be a no no !
I would take an international
Looks for student landlords they are more used to it
Whilst you can still pay in advance do it
What is RRB? If I can’t pay in advance. We don’t stand a chance at renting. With no UK credit, no rental history in UK, what landlord/property mgmt would take a chance? I mean we can show proof of our bank account but it’s still super shady to a landlord.
Is it possible for me to hire a letting agent when I get there? Is it likely a letting agent would take us on to help us find a flat?
Renters reform bill being put through parliament
Supposed to make it better for renters !
A clause means LLs can’t take rent in advance
RRB is not in yet and won’t be by the time you arrive
I would offer in advance
By the time it’s introduced you will be well into contract and offer to pay in advance
Offer your letting history to the landlord
You are best looking yourself
It’s not like states . Don’t rely on and agent to find your home
You may not get through via an estate agency because of the lack of credit history in the U.K.
Approach the local university accommodation office
Those landlords are used to internationals and more likely to take you
Thank you for the information and confidence booster. I read about the RRB right after seeing the post and you are right I feel we are getting into Glasgow right before the RRB would negatively impact us. I really appreciate everyone that has engaged with me here. Met a very nice letting agent during a virtual showing today who seems keen on working with us to secure this flat. I hope it works out. Wish me luck!
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It will be harder because most of the standard UK credit referencing won’t access US databases, instead they will follow all the typical UK processes which would be useless for your case, but the problem is that unless you pass these checks then the landlord cannot get insurance to cover your rental payments. So probably the type of landlord that would be interested would be one who knows how to handle international tenants and who does not necessarily need the insurance, but on the other hand they will still want to do the Tenant Verify and US credit checking on you. A lot of people deal with international students on a regular basis so these kind of landlords might be a good place to start. You probably need to tell landlords you are willing to pay more than market rate to cover the additional risk or why would I choose you over someone easier to insure?
Thank you those are very helpful points. Really appreciate it. Luckily our credit is excellent in USA 830+. We just applied for my husband’s spousal visa so hopefully that comes through fine and that won’t be an issue on top of everything else.