Renting as a Couple - Financial Question.......

[deli meat tree]

Hello Piston Headz!!

This is my 1st post, so please be gentle.....

I have a real quick question regarding renting a property as a couple. My Girlfriend and I both work full time, and we are looking to move to a slightly larger (and more expensive) flat. My question is - when the Estate Agency comes to reviewing if we can afford it or not, will they considering our incomes together, or separately?

And does anyone know how the Estate Agents work it out? Someone said you need to earn 30X the amount of Monthly rent... but would they look at our joint income?

Many thanks!

Del

[anonymous-user]

If you are both on the contract then both incomes will be considered.

They will have a formula to calculate what you can "afford" but it may differ from agent so best to ask.

[The Tea Boy]

general rule of thumb in lettings is you need to earn 2.5 - 3 times the rent in annual income.

Hope that helps


Matt

[MitchT]

The OH and I got a place about two months ago. They want to know both your incomes but I don't know what (if any) thresholds may exist as far as individual incomes are concerned with regard to setting limits. We had no problem and, for illustration purposes, the rent is equal to about 52% of my take home pay or about 28% of my OH's take home pay or roughly 18% of our joint take home pay. If she left me I'd struggle but the agent didn't seem to be worried about that.

[anonymous-user]

MitchT said:

If she left me I'd struggle but the agent didn't seem to be worried about that.

That's because if she did leave, you would both still be liable for the rent as it's a joint agreement. Assuming you both signed the AST of course