Having shelter over the head is the primary comfort any person would want to have. Renting a house comes at a price. Paying rent every month is a liability for renters. In the case of unemployed individuals, finding a home for rent could be an arduous task.
People have travelled around the world and have shifted their homes from time immemorial. Many people need to rent a house for various reasons. There could be many reasons why one would want to rent a house. Changing current locality, city, and moving to a new place are few to list. To facilitate the search for a new home, they can use multiple modes of house hunting such as online search, letting agencies, personal contacts etc. Renting a place nowadays has become a lot simpler due to the many options available at renters disposal. If you have all the required documents to provide and have the deposit money ready, you can rent a house of your choice by agreeing to all the terms and conditions mentioned in the tenancy agreement.
However, finding a rental home for any unemployed individual comes with its own challenges as they don’t have any income proof to submit to the future landlord. Income proof is the primary requirement any landlord would demand. Generally, landlords insist on doing a background check before renting a home to any renter. The crux of the background and credit check is to verify the financial capacity to pay monthly rent on time. With a successful background check, the landlord gets assured that the future renter is financially sound and can pay rent every month by doing a credit check. So, does this mean that the unemployed can’t rent a house? It is undoubtedly challenging but not impossible, and it also depends largely upon how long one is out of a job and reasons to get unemployed. Let’s brainstorm ways to facilitate finding a rental home for unemployed people.
- Go for private landlords instead of letting agencies: If you go through the letting agencies, you will most likely hit the roadblock at the first step as they would demand financial details. It means you have to prove your income and prove your ability to pay monthly rent on time. You need to submit income proof in the form of a salary slip or self-assessment document and need to provide a bank statement. If you are unemployed or don’t have a regular income, then there are chances that your application for a rental home might get rejected based on your income documents. Letting agencies do background and credit checks while processing the rental application. So, instead of going through letting agencies, you can search for a rental home by directly approaching the private landlords. Many landlords don’t let their property through letting agencies and prefer to do it independently. You can search the rental property advertisements by private landlords. You can approach them directly. Or you can explore the area you wanted a rented house with to rent boards and approach the landlords directly. Private landlords can be flexible when providing the documents compared to the letting agencies. You always need to submit income proofs to letting agencies, but some private landlords may be ready to accept only the bank statement. And based on the same, he may be prepared to let property if he is convinced that you can pay rent on time.
- Use personal references: Try to search for a rental property by using your contacts. It is easier to explain and convince the landlord that even if you are unemployed, you can pay your rent on time every month if you know the landlord personally or through your friends and family. This can give you some discount on income documents while renting a property.
- Offer to pay rent in advance: You can offer the landlord to pay rent in advance if you have enough savings. You can pay rent in advance for some months or a whole rental period. Or you can borrow some money from your family or friends and offer the landlord some rent upfront to get the approval for your rental application.
- Provide proof of other income and savings: Although you don’t have the regular income source because of your unemployment, if you have other investments and savings, you can provide the proof to get the approval for your rental application. You can use your saved money to pay rent on time, and if required, you can use your investments as well. If you have any other income in the form of child benefit, or if you are getting alimony, unemployment benefit (job seekers allowance), dividends on your investments, if you get any tax refunds, you can provide the bank statement to the landlord as the proof of your other income and savings and convince them to rent you a house and assure them about the regularity of rent payments.
- Go for subletting: One more option is to sub-let a property instead of letting a property. It means you are sharing the accommodation with one or more tenants. This is beneficial because you need to pay less rent as rent gets shared among all the renters. If you are unemployed, it will save your money; you need to spend less on rent. Once you get a job, you can find another rental property. If you know someone already staying in a rental and is ready to share the accommodation with you, they can talk with the landlord and guarantee your rent. The requirement of documents is also less as you are subletting a property, and somebody is taking the guarantee of your rent.
- Get a guarantor: One more option to find a rental house when you are unemployed is to find a guarantor. A guarantor is the one who takes the responsibility to pay rent on behalf of you if you are unable to pay rent. A guarantor needs to sign the tenancy agreement along with you. Finding a guarantor is not easy as it is legally binding for a guarantor to pay on your behalf if you fail to pay rent once he signs the tenancy agreement. It is a financial risk for a guarantor. You can ask someone from your family or friends to become a guarantor for you. If you don’t want to use your contacts to act as a guarantor, one more option is to use the UK guarantor service and rent accommodation.
As one can see, there is no need to get demoralised as even an unemployed person can find a way out to get a rental property by following the above tips.
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