Finding private rentals

I feel so freaking down and out.  We're having a hell of a time finding a house to rent.  My husband was 18 when he left England, so he has no credit.  I'm an immigrant, so I have no credit.  We can easily put down 6 months' rent upfront, but we can't get past the credit check stage.  We have NO ONE who can be a guarantor.  It looks like we're going to be forced to look for houses that are being let privately.  But how do you find them?  I saw a web site linked in another thread but there's not one listing for all of West Yorkshire.  (We're looking around Keighley, Wakefield.)

For now, we've ditched the hotel because we were pouring money down the drain and are staying with my in-laws, but it's miserable.  I want a house.  Had I known that we would have this much trouble getting one, we would have done things differently.  I can't believe that waving £4k in someone's face isn't enough to get a house.

Does anyone have suggestions about how to find private lettings?  gumtree.co.uk and fish4.co.uk have turned up nothing that's suitable.  We don't have a car, so looking in a newspaper is not a great alternative because we can't see a place before we spend the money on a taxi or bus to get there.  Help?

We found our privately rented house on Gumtree- even if it's not turning anything up now, I'd keep checking it in case something comes up.  Another good source of rental listings for us was an internet forum focusing on the local area, so you can search to see if you have anything like that where you are.  Are you looking in Leeds/other cities, or in more village-y type areas? 

We're trying to focus on Keighley at the moment because that's where my husband is working.  We didn't really like Leeds so we were going to try to look further out (towns in/around Wakefield and then towns on the outside of Bradford).  For search purposes, I try to leave it as wide as I can before narrowing it to leave options open, but it's been to no avail so far.  We're lucky to have somewhere to stay, but it's less than ideal (they smoke and I'm extremely sensitive to it, not to mention being pregnant and having a toddler with us), so we want to get out ASAP.  I'm going to keep checking Gumtree and Fish4 religiously, and hopefully we'll be able to get out this weekend to see if we see anything.

Any suggestions on how to find town-specific forums?

Hi there, i rent from village estates based in Bradford , they are generally quite good, for example replacing a washing machine with a brand new one when the old one broke, anyway here is the web addy http://www.village-estates.biz/ hope you find something 

Thanks!  Do you know anything about their policies with immigrants/people with no credit?

We can easily put down 6 months' rent upfront, but we can't get past the credit check stage.  We have NO ONE who can be a guarantor

This sounds strange.   Putting down six months + deposit skips over the need for a guarantor.  None of the agencies I visited while apartment hunting had any problems with that.  In fact, they were kind of thrilled, calling it 'good stuff,' the greedy bastards.

That's what I thought would be the case   I'm astounded that having the full rent amount (six months) PLUS an additional month as a security "deposit" isn't enough.  That was with William H. Brown estate agents.

That's what I thought would be the case   I'm astounded that having the full rent amount (six months) PLUS an additional month as a security "deposit" isn't enough.  That was with William H. Brown estate agents.

Have you tried other agents? They do vary in policies and flexibility.

Also, keep asking everybody you know or meet. We found our first house here by telling the owner of the B&B where we were staying that we were looking. Her sister had a place available, and we ended up taking it. Wasn't great, but it worked. After 18 months, we had plenty of credit and were able to go through an agent when we moved to Leeds.

Oh, and I know you said you didn't care for Leeds, but agents here are probably more accustomed to dealing with immigrants. The one we're with didn't bat an eye. We're quite near the university, which probably helps.

We had a viewing with another agent (Bramley's, I think), and they also basically said not to bother applying in our circumstance.  It's getting really annoying getting the runaround on the phone too.  No one wants to just say one way or another.

Also, keep asking everybody you know or meet. We found our first house here by telling the owner of the B&B where we were staying that we were looking.

I want to echo this.  B&B owners are really helpful and they usually know the local area well.  The previous time I moved to the UK, three different B&B owners proved to be absolutely invaluable.  Ask older, retired people for advice or tips, since they usually have good contacts and are only too happy to share their knowledge.  My neighbors were the sweetest people who helped me with everything from a water leak to window cleaning.

I'd suggest you move in next door, but you're nowhere near my area, so that wouldn't work out too well for your husband's commute.   However, do check different agents.  I think we tried seven or so of them before we found this property.

Thanks!  Do you know anything about their policies with immigrants/people with no credit?


 i am not sure .but i'll try to find out for you

Oh you don't have to do that!  They have a couple properties here so I'm going to call them on Monday probably and get it straight from the horse's mouth

Oh you don't have to do that!  They have a couple properties here so I'm going to call them on Monday probably and get it straight from the horse's mouth

ok good luck, and let me know how you get on 

Will do!  Hopefully I'll report back with good news next week.

Last year we went looking for a new flat with estate agencies. My husband is a poker player and I'm a poker player so the agents' eyes usually crossed when they heard that. However, we didn't have a single one turn us down when we offered to pay six months upfront. Eventually on the flat we ended up taking, we agreed to six months upfront and then quarterly.

I'm sorry, I know this isn't particularly helpful, but it really doesn't make sense to me why the agencies you're dealing with are giving you so much trouble. I mean, if a tenant has enough cash on hand to pay a deposit and half the annual rent, how likely is is that they will shirk the rest?