O/t Tennancy credit checks any one know if this is correct???

When we rented, we didn't pay a penny for credit checks - they cost about £3 for the company to do!

Gernally though, if I were you I would consider whether you want to rent from an agent this difficult? imagine how hard it will be dealing with their requests, for example inspections, getting your deposit back. Etc.

Ok well not sure what you should do as legally i think they are supposed to have an agreement with anyone living in the property, But i like you don;t work and thus contribute nothing to the rent H2b covers the lot. We went down the route of H2b took out the agreement saying only he would be living there, and i would be visiting, i moved in about a month later..... We have lovely landlords and they know I live here, should anything happen to H2b i would have to move back in with my parents as i am not well enough to live alone...

Once your married it is absolutely fine i think....

She's stringing you along. I live with OH and the agent and landlord had NO problem with just doing the agreement in h2b's name while I wasn't working. It does admittedly mean that me and the kids would be buggered if anything happened to h2b, and that I have no legal right to this property but at least we didn't have to fork out two lots of credit check fees. Our estate agent was the nicest bloke on the planet though, which is unusual in itself!

I'm a landlord myself and deal with everything though my estate agent. All of my tenants are credit checked, but i did have one couple who were on a fairly low income and as a result the estate agent asked if someone else could be named as a guarantor in case there were any problems with payments - the guarantor was their parents, so i think this is a pretty standard thing. If the estate agent isn't aware of this, then either they are stringing you along, or just pretty dumb.

I would say that if it was just your OHs name on the tenancy agreement then it should only be him to pay for the credit card check, but i would say if there was a named guarantor, they too would probably be credit checked. if i were you, i would ask another estate agent and make a general query or look on line for your rights.

Also, it is quite common to ask for 6 weeks deposit - not sure why, but some agents do take this amount instead of 4, but by law they're not permitted to hold it in their normal banking account, it has to be held in a special holding account where no interest is gained.

i'm afraid, I don't really know much more, as my agent deals with all of it, but i do know that as a tenant you have quite a few rights, including:-

the landlord must provide a valid gas certificate (if there is gas in the property) this should be renewed annually.
there must be smoke detectors fitted
if there is any damage to the property which is not your fault, ie. fence falling down in wind, blocked drains, broken boiler etc then it is the landlord's responsibility to get them fixed. Of course, if any damage is caused by yourself, then it's up to you to pay for any repair/replacement.
Please ensure you have suitable contents insurance. As a landlord, I have my own landlord's insurance, but the tenant provides their own contents, should anything happen.

I would strongly advise you to take photos when you move in - especially if there is any damage at all, so that at the end of your tenancy you can prove that this damage was already there (such as marks on walls, carpets etc) as the landlord can withhold some of the deposit if the property isn't back to suitable standard when you leave. I've done this before when my tenant left scuff marks all along the walls and tried to paint over it with old paint and ended up making the house worse than when they moved in.

Thankyou all for your comments, very much appreciated. I have just spoken to my gurantor and although he is happy to go along with it yet again, he also feels that the agent is stringing us along in order to get an extra £80 from us. I have decided that I will ever so politely query her reasoning and state my points just to be bl**dy minded but ultimatly it transpires that my OH has already paid her the £160 for the referencing. If we weren't up against such a dead line to re-locate I think I would have no qualms in taking our business elsewhere. I am not a confrontational person and so hate all this kind of stuff. I really do think politeness and good manners go a lot further with people than an abrupt know it all manner. Especially, when clearly, if having never heard of using a guarantor; this lady DOES NOT know it all Grrrr!!