If you’ve been keeping a careful eye on the news over the past couple of years, you’ll know that it’s more difficult now than it’s been for years to get your own home. With mortgage prices rocketing and a lull in the number of affordable new homes being produced each year, the government could be seen as doing the bare minimum when it comes to making it easy for people to get onto the housing ladder.
So what are people doing? Naturally, they’re turning to the rental market, but this is causing an altogether different – yet equally as frustrating – set of problems.
Why It’s So Hard to Rent
With more and more people putting pressure on the rental market, there are fewer properties to rent because they’re being snapped up quicker than you can find one. This has created a seller’s market, and many people looking to make a good investment are buying up properties and renting them out to the highest bidder.
Ultimately, this means that landlords have the power to make it as difficult as they wish to ensure the tenants they end up with are going to be as reliable as possible. One way they can control this is by not accepting potential tenants that have poor (or sometimes even fair) credit scores.
Renting with a Poor Credit Rating
If you’ve been trying to rent but you’ve been seeing that landlords aren’t very receptive to those of us with poor credit ratings, don’t lose hope. There are plenty of ways that you can minimize and negate the affect that your not-so-great credit score has on a landlord’s decision.
Although, as this article by Different Money suggests, your credit score will affect your chances of being accepted, if you implement some of the following behaviors, you’ll be more likely to come out on top if you do decide to apply for tenancy.
Negating the Effects of a Bad Credit Score
You can make a start bytaking a look at your credit report using a service like Experian and figure out what’s making your score look bad. It could be something as silly as you’ve got a credit card that you’re overusing (you probably want to use your credit card up to a point of 30% of its capacity), and if that’s the case, you can easily rectify the situation and bring your credit report back into line.
You should also scrutinize your report to see whether there have been any mistakes made. There’s always the chance that there’s a bullet point that wrongly accuses you of something you haven’t actually done, and this could be put right with the right piece of evidence that backs up your claim (perhaps a bank statement) and a phone call to the right people.
If quick fixes like these aren’t on the table, then professional and personal references, bank balances that show you are capable of managing your money and other trust-building behaviors could be enough to get a landlord to allow you to sign on the dotted line, enabling you to rent somewhere in this difficult housing market.
Ultimately, however, a bad credit score is a bad credit score so you might not find a generous landlord everytime. However, if you work hard, you’ll find one eventually, who’s willing to accept you given you have sufficient evidence.
