You can rent places no problem, plenty of landlords jonesing for your reddies. Anyone with a holiday let, although you can't Airbnb. You'll need to gumtree or marketplace it.

Which part of the UK is he flying in to?

xandreu wrote: ↑Tue Apr 21, 2020 4:47 pm

WineOxley wrote: ↑Tue Apr 21, 2020 4:38 pm Which part of the UK is he flying in to?

London Heathrow. Apparently the only (fairly reliable) flights now are the Korean Air ones, which are PP > Seoul > London Heathrow. I think the plan is to settle in London.

If he's looking for a sole occupancy tenancy, here are the problems.

They will want 6 months minimum, and will require you to jump through hoops to get a tenancy.

I assume he will fail all normal credit and background checks by virtue of being out of country for a number of years? Plus no job? That's will exclude 90% of most landlords who won't want to know.

He's going to have to put down a deposit, now set at not more than 5 weeks rent (and not less either). After that it's a case of putting down chunk of rent in advance, in his case at least 3 months, and that would be in normal circumstances. However, the government has already said that there will be no repossession proceedings being permitted to commence for 3 months as of 18th of March (at that is going to be extended), any landlord who lets him in will not be able to get him out anytime soon. It takes many month's in normal times, either for arrears or just termination of the tenancy. I would hate to have to do one now. I would be very surprised if you could get someone out by Xmas.

Anyone landlord who lets him in is taking an almighty risk, even with £1000's in deposit and advance rent, and landlords are generally risk averse. Managing agents are even more so, as they might be on the hook for any losses.

His best bet is a house share. They will already have a tenancy and if they are a 'man down' they are all still on the hook for any rent shortfall. They wont be too keen on his circumstances either but sometimes a wad of cash and a pile of promises will do the trick. Being an exotic international jetsetter from the tropics might impress some people. Some will want the landlords approval which may well throw a spanner in the works, but the landlord is already in a situation of 'no-repos' so the more tenants, the more likelihood of getting paid, fingers crossed.

There are a lot of students in HMO's (houses of multiple occupancy) that are required to rent for the whole year, not just the academic year. Depending on age he might be able to fit in somewhere and students are none too worldly wise to ask any pointed questions. Especially if there are 3 of them in a 5 room house and they've lost their summer jobs in the local pubs and restaurants (which they have). Most of them have gone home now, some for good, but there will be plenty who are staying put and might fancy a few months of cash - no questions asked. University towns such as Brighton are a nice place to hang out. I have know idea how to contact these types, but they are out there and probably would be the course of least resistance.

Hope this helps...

and he better get a good backstory worked out. Just showing up with a hope of finding a job ain't gonna wash. A good dollop of bullshit will go a long way to persuade someone to hand over some keys.