Hey everyone,
I'm currently trying to rent an apartment with my bf. I agreed to be the main tenant as he is only on a temporary contract with his employers, thinking that my stipend of 1250 pcm was easily enough to cover the cost. However, I've come up with difficulty now, as on the agreement forms they ask for gross salary, which obviously as a PhD student I don't get, so I put a note on saying I don't pay tax, NI etc etc, and what my net amount was per month. Now though, they've turned around and said that because I don't officially earn 17400 gross a year I can't have the property!
Has anyone else had this problem with trying to rent as a PhD student?

Is there any way that you can either (a) ask someone to guarantor the rental or (b) pay a proportion of the rent up front? We've had this problem too (though the imbecilic letting agents didn't tell us until two days before we were supposed to move in!) and there is usually a way around it.....
Sx

Agreed; providing that you can prove sufficient income to cover the costs of the rental agreement there should not be any issues. Technically speaking your stipend is your salary so there are ways and means of working round it. Get the Estate agen to do it, that's what you pay them for. :-)

Starshine - get a letter of recommendation from your supervisor, admin and accounts office saying you are on the books and that the stipend will cover the time period. Works fine here.

Yup - I did the same as Bonzo... poor supervisor got nagged at! Plus they should also ask your bank for a status enquiry as to whether they think you can meet the commitment. To be honest it sounds like a rather inexperienced letting agent who takes such a narrow approach. I just moved house last week and although my stipend looks a bit crap (plus is due to end before the end of the contract), they were happy when my bank said that yes the new rent was high but that I have never missed paying rent and I have managed my account relatively well.

Thanks for the replies guys.
Yes, I could get my parents to go as a guarantoor, but I just didn't want to have to have them go through full credit checks etc. when I know that it is easily affordable. And for some reason, eventhough other people I know have paid a portion up front, they won't let us do this, they said that the only option is to pay the entire 6 months up front-around £4500! I wish!
They've said the only other way to do it is that my work reference (who I put as my sup's PA as he's extremely busy) would have to lie and say that I get x amount gross per year, which would be seen as affordable by the referencing company!
Arghhhh!!!!!! I'm meant to be moving in in a week, and I've stupidly gone and got quite alot of new stuff for my supposed new home!

Starshine - do not move into that flat. I don't know the local conditions but 6 months rent is unheard of (do they know that there is a f**king recession on?). At that price, yourself and himself could get a proper house (hate apartments)! That is mortgage repayment terms and that crowd sound like a right bunch of cowboys! Again, I don't know the local conditions so sorry. Ask about your group.

As for your Supervisor being too busy, thats nonsense. He can surely sign a drafted letter and surely has done this before for other students. It's not his job to ensure your comfort but surely he can spare 5 seconds

I just had a nightmare with my flat and ended up paying 6 months rent up front. They weren't happy with the fact that I was classed as a student, despite my stipend and wanted a million references from various people. I had to use my mum as a guarantor, who couldn't pass the reference as they wanted 6 months of her accounts up to date from a chartered accountant. As her accounts weren't up to date (and she didn't want to have to sort them out just for this) we had to pay it all up front, which I think is pretty stupid. Its a small studenty area and I'm sure most people don't have that sort of cash lying around! grrrrrrrr

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