Self employed and renting

[sblades]

Hi,

I was wondering if someone is able to give us some advice regarding referencing?

My partner and I are currently looking to move for his new job and rent out a property, we currently privately rent a property owned by my partner's parents and have previously rented several properties each as students whilst we were at university (with guarantors).

The monthly rent for the new property will be approximately £800/ month, my partner will be earning £20,000/ year and I have been self employed just over a year and made £21,000 profit in my first year trading. Our problem is how I will prove my income in order to pass the referencing.

I have submitted my first tax return for the tax year 2019/2020 however as I only started trading in November 2019 this only covers a 6 month period and my profits were much lower in the first few months whilst setting up the business (I earned £4000 profit in the first 6 months). I don't have an accountant as I do my accounts myself. Providing bank statements may also not help as most of my profits (after paying bills) were reinvested back into stock to grow the business so I've always had a high amount of outgoing transactions. I can however provide my Paypal statement showing over £75,000 worth of payments entered my account during my first year of trading.

As far as I can see my options would be either
1) Provide my tax return from last year when I was making less profit (would equal roughly £8000/ year)
2) Provide my Paypal statement for the year showing payments received
3) Provide my own accounts for the year (if this would be acceptable?)

We also both have guarantors available. Is it possible to go straight down the guarantor route knowing that proving my income would be difficult? Would this impact our application at all?

Thanks

[Dan_Manchester]

Explain to the agent when arranging viewing. Sure it would be fine. I would consider your application but with such a short time self employed would probably request a guarantor (assuming your credit file was clean and so was the guarantor).

[sblades]

Thanks for your response. Would we require a guarantor each in this case or is just one guarantor required for a joint tenancy?

[theartfullodger]

It's entirely up to landlord/agent what if any referencing or checking they do on tenants. As suggested, talk to agent. No checks are required...

My best ever tenants only reference was a neighbour who I knew telling me "Mr Artful, they very nice people". They were, never any issues, but a gamble on my part.

Good luck & best wishes!!

[Section20z]

Forget agents find a landlord you can talk to and tell him what you said in #1

[Dan_Manchester]

Forget agents find a landlord you can talk to and tell him what you said in #1

Easy said but finding privately managing LLs not all that easy and really you should be looking for the property in the area you want first rather than seeking out LLs directly IMO.

That said, look for properties listed by ‘open rent’ or ‘letting a property’ on Rightmove / Zoopla as they are more likely to be managing LLs.