We’re currently trying to rent a house in the Leeds area (3–4 bed, £1,500–£2,500 pcm) and keep hitting the same issue — failing referencing purely because we don’t have a UK credit history.
We were recently accepted for a property, paid the deposit, and then rejected after referencing for this exact reason.
The frustrating part is that financially we’re very solid:
– We run a UK and German business
– We’ve leased a workshop in the UK for 5+ years with no issues
– We’ve lived in Germany for 17 years (11 years at the same address)
– We have full documentation (payslips, bank statements, excellent Schufa credit, landlord reference, etc.)
It seems like everything just goes through automated checks that fail as soon as there’s no UK credit file, regardless of the actual situation.
So the question is — how are people in this position actually getting rentals?
Are there specific approaches that work in practice (company lets, certain agents, offering upfront rent, etc.), or is it just a case of finding the right landlord and avoiding agents altogether?
Any real-world advice would be appreciated, especially from landlords or anyone who’s been through this.
“Failing” referencing isn’t fatal for all landlords. You need to find a LL who will look at the bigger picture and you need to do this right at the start of an enquiry for a property to save you wasting your time. Full disclosure on your situation wouldn’t kill your application with me. I only use referencing to cross reference everything I’ve already compiled on an applicant. I know many LLs want rent guarantee insurance and, if so, they need referencing to complete, but I’ve never used RGI because I prefer to self-insure by selecting the right tenants. So, LLs like me are out there. They’re just harder to find.
TLDR; tell the LL/agent up front that you’re likely to fail referencing despite being solid. Don’t argue if they don’t want you, just move on. There are LLs out there that aren’t so bothered about box-ticking exercises.
@Paul230 you may need to get a short term rental first to build up a history. If you have a UK company paying UK profits to you you should have a UK bank account and UK tax history you can provide.
Also for those LLs who want to get RGI (increasing I expect as RRA makes eviction ever harder), consider using a guarantor (or there are companies you can pay to act as guarantors). As they will have a UK credit history the application may well then pass.
Last there will be agents who specialise in securing corporate lets for their employees and offer Landlords ‘rent to rent’ deals- using those and your company to secure a tenancy may be an option. Obviously that then needs financial due diligence of the company by those agents/the LL but might be an option for you
Good luck
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Thanks David, wise words, already regrouped and discovered that the easiest way is full disclosure with a much more professional estate agent works. Happy to accept bank statements pay slips and German tax statements and the link to my German credit history on their portal, password protected. Redit research on the agency in question also proved very interesting with many complaints about their service and how they operate. It’s amazing what ChatGPT can unearth when you put it to work.
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