The letting agency is only acting on behalf of the landlord, so the ultimate decision is the landlord's. However, they may have given the letting agency the authority to reject interested parties if they fail to meet certain requirements. I guess the only way of getting an answer to your questions is by giving it a go and see what happens. There is no reason that you couldn't move in to the tenancy whilst still being in possession of your home I'd have thought.

I'm not sure what format this statement takes that would require to be signed, and am not a lawyer, but don't believe that they could enforce repayment of a shortfall if your husband is in a protected trust deed or a sequestration, regardless of such a statement having been signed. If your husband is worried about signing such a thing then I guess the fallback is that you just stop paying the mortgage and they will eventually take legal action and repossess the property themselves.

Hi gillianr2.

Your mortgage arrears will show up on a credit check and may well be of more concern to a potential landlord (or their agent) than a protected trust deed would be. This is especially the case if the rent amount is close to the mortgage payment that you have been struggling to keep up with. You may wish to think about how or whether to cover this subject with the agent/landlord before the credit check goes ahead.

I really don't think you'll want to sign any paperwork that makes you liable for a mortgage shortfall?

That's a really good point , I hadn't thought of that at all. I first asked about the house a few months ago and the agent said then that they take £150 to do the checks so they would always try to ensure beforehand that you would pass the checks. I mentioned that my husband had a ptd and she didn't seem to know what it was so I explined it and that his credit file wouldn't look good but she just said she would talk us through it all if we wanted the house.

I would be reluctant to pay this amount as I don't see the justification. I charge £25 per adult to be included on the tenancy agreement and guarantor where relevant. This covers both my time writing to and calling Landlords and employers as well as the online credit check.
Try a different agent or advertise on gumtree for a private Landlord?

Thanks Pamjo, unfortunately we live in a tiny village and this is the only house that is suitable for our needs and affordable to us so we are stuck between a rock and a hard place with this one! They said that the £150 is refunded completely on signing a tenancy agreement and payment of the deposit but they never said what happens if you fail the checks i.e. the credit check. I assume you wouldn't get the money back 🙁

Out of interest Pamjo would you take someone on in our position or is it completely different through an agent?

Been to see the house and we are hoping to get it. We told her about the trust deed and she seemed to think it would be ok as long as we have a guarentor aswell, my husband is going to ask his mother as my parents are retired so not allowed. Not holding my breath that my mil will do it though. It's going to cost £175 to do the checks (they added £25 for the guarentor!) and we dont get it back if we "fail", GULP!! The estate agent called her head office just to ask their advice first and they said too that all should be ok as long as the guarentors checks come back ok too. It's then £713 deposit and £475 first month rent upfront on day of move if we get it. If we dont pay the Nov arrears and the Dec payment (due end of the month) on our mortgage then we should be able to have enough money for it all. I have checked again and it seems we def would be due some housing benefit which I assume wouldn't be payable until we were actually in the house and paid in arears? Not sure.

I take it Nram wouldn't be able to do anything between now and about 5th Jan? We have had a notice of defualt on payment arrangement which gives 15 days notice to pay the arrears for Nov or they will being repossesion. They also sent an income and expenditure and asked us to propose a payment plan which we haven't done yet. Should we hang on to it all and do nothing until we know if we can get the house or not? the agent said that we should know by the end of next week if we hand in all our stuff to them on Mon. If we dont get the house then we will have to wait on the council which will be 6mths+ at least so we would ef need to sort something out payment wise with Nram, hence we dont want to burn our bridges with them just yet. We also still ahve an app to see money matters but that isn't until 5th Jan and Nram want us to propose something straight away.

Hi gillianr2.

That sounds very expensive for credit checks that will only cost them a few pounds. Hope it all goes well though and they are good to their word regards the guarantor.

Will NRAM not give you any breathing space pending your upcoming appointment?

Hi, no Nram have been pretty good with us until now to be fair so they were getting forceful that they wanted an answer now with how we would be proceeding with payments. My husband called them today and they said they would not take less than £500 a month or they would proceed with repo (that's what we were paying before) so my husband reluctantly agreed through fear more than anything.

We've talked alot more today about the rental house and although it was good there was a few things totally putting us off. The estate agent said that the owner had really wanted to sell but didn't have alot of interest in the current climate so we asked how long the lease would be and she said 6mths initially then a year at a time, this is prob normal for private rental but with there being so few choices in our area we were worried that she may want to try and sell again soon so we would be stuck frantically looking for another house with 4 kids. The £175 to do checks we both felt was really excessive and then we had to find £713 deposit and £475 first months rent and all over Xmas. We are desperate to move but I think we are slowly coming to realise that council is prob the best way forward for us and we will just have tio try and wait out the 6/8mths it should take to find us somewhere.

My husbands td is ti be extended by 2yrs next Sept, do the same rules apply for if we volunteer repossesion after next Sept as his td will be extended then? Incase the council dont get us anywhere until then.

Hello.

Do you mean the same rules about a shortfall being covered by the trust deed?

Yes that's what I mean

gillianr2,

Have any suitable houses in the village been up for sale for a long time? It might be worth asking the owner if they would be willing to rent to you or if they are open to a long term rent to buy?

How confident are you that the agent has discussed your potential application and cirdcumstances with the owner of the house you viewed?

Regards whether your situation would stop me letting to you, the agent I use would have outlined the facts to me before taking your money or submitting credit checks. the main things I need to know, from reliable and verifiable sources are affordability, character and treatment of prior houses. I also would meet you before you moved in and I would always do your check in and inventory. I don't let further than 1/2 hour drive away so that I can do this. Depends what the Landlord leaves to the agent on each case I suppose.

Hi Pamjo, no the lady who owns the house lives far down south and as far as the agent made out she has not been contacted about us, it all goes straight through them. the agent just said that she had really wanted to seel as apparently she bought the house and moved up here on the promise of a job which then fell through hence she moved back home and put the hosue up for sale so basically it means she had no intention of having to rent but the house just sat on the market and never sold. To me with her situation it indicates that if there was a buyer to be found then she would much rather that so that worried us.

There are a few houses that have been on sale for a long time but i'd say maybe 2/3 of them would be suitable but the rent would prob be massive on them going by the size of them and the other rental houses around here, they were all over £200 a month more than the one we seen, The other houses are all too small at just 2 bedrooms. x

gillianr2

It's a long shot but have you considered writing to the owner to suggest a longer term rental? I never offer more than the 6 months required for a SAT for a first rental because I need to know I can end the tenancy if we're not happy. You could find out if the Landlord is at least open to a longer term.
The house is just a liability to the owner at the minute, if it's been empty long enough, the Landlord will be paying council tax, insurance, heating, possibly mortgage payments too. A regular rental income might be welcome as selling just now is likely to be difficult and costly?

To answer your earlier question, gillianr2, the shortfall would be covered by the trust deed at any point.

If you are going for voluntary repossession I wouldnt worry too much about NRAM,they will want what you havent got and whatever you do offer will be eaten up by the interest and arrears fees.

Hope you get something sorted ASAP.

Paul