No previous landlord references

waxmelts2000

I'm writing this on behalf of a friend. He has split with his wife 2 years ago however she moved out and he stayed in the family home. She now wants to move back but there is very little to be had in his location to rent. He has paid 50% of the mortgage over the years , has a very good work reference and has the money IE deposit etc.


Do you think having no landlord references is going against him? Is there anything else he should add to cover letters when viewing or applying to rent. Thanks for reading

Samuel T. Cogley

Yes it will go against him but a good employers reference will certainly help him. It's a plausible enough story. (Not to suggest it's untrue)

christy02

Had this issue before and made them up. Just put a friend down as a reference and say you rented a room in their house.
When they get a call they just say yeah he lived here, paid rent on time etc. Who is to say any different?

Samuel T. Cogley

christy02 wrote: »

Had this issue before and made them up. Just put a friend down as a reference and say you rented a room in their house.
When they get a call they just say yeah he lived here, paid rent on time etc. Who is to say any different?

As a landlord I'd want to cross reference that with a bank statement showing the rent being paid for exactly that reason. I'd also probably take someone used to paying a mortgage (on time presumably) than someone who had only been renting a room.

Ideally of course I'd like someone who has been renting, with a good reason for moving, and a LL's reference which can be cross checked.

_brendand_

In the same situation last year, moving back to Ireland and were selling our house in the UK. The estate agent asked to see personal references instead, from a previous employer.

theballz

Make them up.

garhjw

OP, I have accepted tenants with no landlord references but were able to provide a good employers reference which indicate length of service and salary. They are generally foreign nationals relocating to Ireland but I have also accepted this for Irish people as well.

chicorytip

Try to avoid dealing with estate agents and talk directly to the landlord. There are many decent and scrupulous ones out there who will not insist on viewing references as long as the potential tenant can demonstrate he/she has the ability to pay the rent.

myshirt

You might have to pay an extra hundred or so each month to put you above the others. Once you build up a landlord reference history, you can then go back to normal.

SNNUS

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

As a landlord I'd want to cross reference that with a bank statement showing the rent being paid for exactly that reason. I'd also probably take someone used to paying a mortgage (on time presumably) than someone who had only been renting a room.

Ideally of course I'd like someone who has been renting, with a good reason for moving, and a LL's reference which can be cross checked.

You are not getting a copy of my bank statement! None of your business.

amcalester

SNNUS wrote: »

You are not getting a copy of my bank statement! None of your business.

Then you’re not renting his apartment.

the_syco

SNNUS wrote: »

You are not getting a copy of my bank statement! None of your business.

I'm sorry, but the person before you was a better match. Best of luck in your apartment search.

=-=

Heck, I've heard of people going to view some apartments to rent in Dublin with their bank statements, job & landlord references, first months rent and their deposit with them.

NinetyTwoTeam

myshirt wrote: »

You might have to pay an extra hundred or so each month to put you above the others. Once you build up a landlord reference history, you can then go back to normal.

that's ridiculously illogical. 'oh you don't have a reference saying you can pay the advertised rent? well than I'll just take it on trust that you can pay even more than that.'

anyone trying to pull that is obviously not concerned about anything other than extorting the prospective tenant.

why aren't landlords required to provide references from tenants detailing if repairs were carried out, deposits returned, etc.? my number one reason for moving out of a place was some issue with the landlord not fulfilling his responsibilities or pulling some shady crap (had one try to rent out my dining room as bedroom, another rented me a 'refurbished' house with no insulation whatsoever in the attic. another who decided to change our electricity to prepay meter without consulting us, the list goes on and on). but the next person moving in has no idea what they're getting into and has to pay through the nose for the privilege of finding out, and then continue to pay while they put up with it and try to save up for a deposit to move, and then they don't know if they will get their first deposit back.

instead of BER ratings a landlord rating system woud have been way more beneficial. i know there are bad tenants but a bad tenant can basically only put a temporary dent in your wallet/bank balance, a bad landlord can endanger your health, make you homeless, ruin your daily life for long periods of time. the attitude of landlords who post here would give Marie Antoinette a run for her money.

the_syco

NinetyTwoTeam wrote: »

why aren't landlords required to provide references from tenants detailing if repairs were carried out, deposits returned, etc.?

Supply and demand. There's not much supply, but lots of demand.

NinetyTwoTeam wrote: »

i know there are bad tenants but a bad tenant can basically only put a temporary dent in your wallet/bank balance, a bad landlord can endanger your health, make you homeless, ruin your daily life for long periods of time. the attitude of landlords who post here would give Marie Antoinette a run for her money.

Actually, a bad tenant can cause you to have all of your savings lost by having to pay lawyers to have he bad tenant evicted, and you could still lose the house if you don't have the funds to pay the mortgage. Thankfully I didn't have enough money to buy a house in the 00's.

davo10

NinetyTwoTeam wrote: »

but a bad tenant can basically only put a temporary dent in your wallet/bank balance, a bad landlord can endanger your health, make you homeless, ruin your daily life for long periods of time. the attitude of landlords who post here would give Marie Antoinette a run for her money.

Ridiculous, I'll informed rubbish.

An errant tenant can take up to a year to legally evict, all that time there is no rent coming in and mortgage repayments still have to be made. That is more than a "temporary dent".

What myshirt was saying is that the op might have to offfer to pay more in order to compensate for lack of a reference, without the reference he is at a significant disadvantage compared to other applicants, cash might help to overcome that hurdle.