We have been served 2 mths notice...

[Nova]

as our landlord wants to move his pregnant girlfriend into our apartment. We have only been here 9 months and are devastated for a number of reasons, including our child being settled in nursery and down to go to the local school etc.

We have always gone with private landlords, as when both me and my partner were at uni along with our degrees we collected crap credit ratings.
What I would really like to know is, is the credit search done by agencies like the one done for a credit card? We have landlord references/ work references, and in our current apartment had a 'credit worthiness' check, and passed that, and are good tennants, but would our mistakes of yesteryear ruin us from having a chance of going through a letting agent?

Your help would be most appreciated as would like to know if we have a chance or not of going through an agent.

[Surrey]

There's only one way to know - give it a go! If you have good references from your current (and any previous) landlord then that will count for A LOT. If your current landlord checked you out and accepted you, there's a good chance a letting agent acting for other private landlords will check you out and recommend that their clients, who are private landlords too, accept you.

[Colincbayley]

You could also perform a credit check on yourself, that way should know the full answer within 24hrs.

[caroline7758]

Agents will also charge you for doing credit checks, so if you can find smaller landlords who may not do checks or may charge less, you may be better off.

Experian often have a free 3 month trial so you can check your own credit worthiness online for free.