Renting and credit history

I'm wondering what expats need to do to be able to rent when they have no UK credit history. I know agents want to be able to take a credit history but what if someone does not even show up in the system? We've never lived in the UK, have no family or friends there- so it's not like we have anyone to co-sign with or any way to prove ourselves. 

I paid 6 months rent up front.

Did you have any other ties to the UK or is that all you needed to do?

The estate agent may be able to do an international credit check.  That's what we did. 

For both of our apartments, I ran my own credit (from the USA), on their computer, in their office, and then I printed it, and gave it to them.

They seemed confused BOTH times, but they accepted it, both times.

I got lucky and found a private landlord who didn't want one. He took a lot more history than normal, including our CVs, before renting.

Did you have any other ties to the UK or is that all you needed to do?

Nope, no other ties... not even a job.
It was a private landlord, and it was initially a 6 month tenancy, so he was happy with that, since he had all his money up front-- it was no risk to him.

Ok, thank you kind folks! I was beginning to wonder just how it's possible to ever move abroad- you've put my mind at ease.

Just gotta keep telling myself to not read too much into what I read on other forums, especially when it goes against my own gut instincts.   

Hi Beccarose,

Just from your last response, there's the potential for a lot of misinformation on the web, as you've found. The trick is to research a little deeper and to compare to other sources of knowledge as well. There's always information that is 'known' about but isn't 'posted' about.

In this case, I've done as mentioned below, and taken 6 months rent up front. I'm a private landlord as well and prefer long term renters that are respectful and trustworthy. If you can, do try and search out a private landlord as you'll find more flexibility. However, do keep your wits about you as of course there are idiot landlords out there as well!

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Thanks DtM I may just have to pick your brain a bit further about renting and landlords and what to expect, if that's ok?

Brain?! what Brain?!

You are welcome to ask and I'll try to help as best I can

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Brain?! what Brain?!

Mwahaha, exactly how I feel!

You are welcome to ask and I'll try to help as best I can

Thank you!

It's all about passing the referencing process, which is usually done by a seperate company, so really even the estate agents don't know exactly what you may or may not need. We had some agents telling us we'd be fine since DH had proof of employment, and others that said we'd need 6 months up front in lieu of referencing since we didn't have recent landlord references. We ended up going with a private landlord who didn't need us to jump through hoops, and now we have a great landlord reference if we need it in the future.

We got lucky that our letting agency were willing to check our US reference (although I don't think they did).  We did both have jobs which were verified and that definitely made a HUGE difference.

Good luck with it all!