How determined tenants are compelled to leap by hoops to hire a house
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Owen Waters knew he would have to share information about his job with potential landlords when he started looking for a new flat last August, but he never expected to divulge details about his love life and hobbies too.
The 27-year-old was excited to be moving in with his girlfriend, Emily, after nearly six years together. They embarked on a search for a two-bedroom flat to rent near Wimbledon, West London.
But when they started scouring property portals for flats, it quickly became clear they were up against fierce competition. Properties were snapped up within days of being listed.
‘When we went to look around a flat we liked, the estate agent said he had 12 viewings the next day,’ says Owen, who works for a consultancy start-up.
Renters pay an average of £1,226 a month for a property in the UK, £350 more than five years ago, according to property website Zoopla
‘He told us, if you want to be in with a chance of getting it, you’re going to have to be quick.
‘Our friends had written a letter to their landlord when they applied for a flat a few months before us and it had helped them to secure it. So we rushed home and wrote a letter that night.’
The couple made sure to include details of how they met at Loughborough University, where they worked and their hobbies, which include playing rugby and travelling to destinations including Argentina, Lisbon and Madeira.
They also attached a smiling photograph of themselves to the application in the hope it would convince the landlord to lease them the flat.
‘At the bottom we even added a link to our LinkedIn profiles,’ Owen says.
‘The next day the estate agent phoned me to say that the landlord really liked the look of us as tenants and we had got the flat.’
Owen and Emily were not asked to send a photograph of themselves, but in other cases prospective tenants are.
As the rental market overheats across the UK, tenants are now being asked to do everything from send personal statements and pay a year’s rent up front to participating in a physical race, in order to find a home.
Competition is fierce – there are now 15 enquiries for every rental property that goes on the market, double the typical number before the pandemic.
Renters pay an average of £1,226 a month for a property in the UK, £350 more than five years ago, according to property website Zoopla.
More than half of privately-rented homes now cost more than £1,000 a month.
Polly Neate, chief executive of housing and homelessness charity Shelter, says that tenants are being forced to jump through ‘extreme hoops’ to find a home as the market creaks under the weight of demand.
‘Renters are routinely pitted against each other as they compete for a limited supply of too often shoddy and overpriced homes,’ she says.
‘Just some of the increasingly unreasonable demands from landlords include eye-watering sums of rent up front, guarantors with excessive conditions, such as needing to earn 36 times the monthly rent, and the continuation of unlawful bans on tenants who claim benefits.’
Meanwhile, in its 2024 Guide to Renting a Home, London estate agent Hudsons Property recommends paying 6-12 months up front as ‘it may give you a competitive edge over other applicants’.
In one case, a landlord asked all applicants that were interested in his property to join a Zoom call, before he proceeded to pull the ‘winner’ of the property’s name out of a hat.
So few options are available that tenants are even being forced to put up with CCTV in kitchens and other communal areas so landlords can watch their every move.
Dr Abi O’Connor, a researcher at thinktank the New Economics Foundation, says the balance of power in the rental market has shifted in favour of landlords in the last two years.
‘In one case in Liverpool, the estate agent said that whoever gets to the office first would get the property, so it was anyone who could run there fast enough,’ she says.
‘We’ve seen landlords pitting tenants against each other. For example, looking at their CVs and their jobs and making it clear there’s a hierarchy.’
Websites including credit reference agency Experian now offer advice on how to write a ‘Rental Resume’, with applicants encouraged to share details of their savings, hobbies and job history.
Tom Darling, 28, who plans and manages campaigns, had copies of his passport and payslips ready to send to his estate agent at a moment’s notice as soon as he found his dream flat near Old Street in East London in January.
Tom Darling, 28, was shocked to be asked to submit a photograph of himself to a potential landlord. He declined, and his application was unsuccessful
But, what Tom wasn’t prepared for was a request from a landlord to send a photograph of himself in his application.
‘I was told the landlord wanted a picture in order to form a connection with the tenant,’ he says.
Horrified, Tom declined and his application for the flat was unsuccessful.
‘I refuse to send a photo as I felt that it was a way for the landlord to discriminate against applicants based on their appearance,’ he says.
‘The worry is if you don’t play ball, it reduces your chances of getting the flat.’
Tom says that when he applied for other rental properties, he was asked to submit biographies, which included which university he graduated from.
‘Landlords now feel they are entitled to sort through people in a way that’s almost like a job interview,’ he says.
‘It’s a complete Wild West. Anyone who has been through the process of renting in the past few years will know how much bad practice there is.’
Thankfully, Tom has since found a cosy two-bedroom flat in East London to call home.
Tenants had hoped that a ‘once in a generation’ bill to reform the rental sector would increase protections for renters by strengthening their rights and banning no-fault evictions.
However, the Renters Reform Bill was shelved a fortnight ago when the General Election was called.
There may be a glimmer of hope in the Tory manifesto with a promise to scrap capital gains tax for landlords who sell their property to tenants.
What are my rights as a landlord?
Landlords are allowed to ask for an interview, photograph or CV from applicants who want to rent their property but tenants are under no legal obligation to provide it.
However, if tenants do not give you this information then you can decide not to let them rent your property.
You are not obliged to rent a flat to a tenant if you believe they will not look after your property, do not earn enough money or get a bad reference from a previous landlord.
However, if you refuse to rent a property to a tenant because they receive benefits such as Universal Credit then you could be breaking the law under the Equality Act 2010.
