When we assess your application we do what’s called an affordability check. This is to make sure that once you pay your rent you have enough income left to cover essential item like food, etc.
The UK Government definition of “rent poverty” is paying more than a third of your income in rent. We recognise that the government approach is a good one, but doesn’t take into account your overall income level properly. To improve on this we generally require your income to be between 2.7x and 3x the rent, depending on your income level.
It’s important that we do the check because we don’t want any of our tenants to be in “rent poverty”. If you were it can make it difficult for you to live comfortably and sustain the tenancy. That’s not good for you or us.
This calculator allows you to easily check whether you will pass our affordability check.
Simply enter your GROSS monthly income and the rent amount for the room / studio / flat which you can find on the advert then click submit and you will be shown the result.
By “GROSS monthly income” we mean your income BEFORE deductions like tax, National Insurance, pension, etc. If you are unsure then you can find this on your payslip. There is usually a section called “Payments” where you can find your Gross Pay, sometimes called “Total Payments” on your payslip. This is always more than your Net pay which is after tax.
If you are applying as a couple then you should enter your combined income by assing them both together before entering that figure on the form. For instance if you earn £1,500/month and your partner earns £2,000/month then you should enter £3500 on the form.