u/Amelia9057

Not sure if this is the right place to post this but is anyone else self employed and sick to death of having to jump through so many extra hoops or getting plain rejected for things like rentals due to self employment. I love what I do and I make enough money to support myself and my family comfortably.

But I’m honestly considering getting a job just to make my life easier even though I would have to work way more hours than I do currently to earn the same and would lose all my flexibility and freedom.

I experienced today getting rejected for a rental property because they took my income from a few months of self employment and averaged it across the entire financial year (when I only started being self employed in November so many of the months of this financial year were zero).

I understand self employment is volatile and goes up and down but a casual employee who is completely at the mercy of their employer to get shifts or not wouldn’t be treated the same way.

I’m essentially a contractor who exchanges time for money with little to no expenses or overhead (and definitely no shortage of work across multiple companies I’m contracted through) so these lengths to prove income become even more ridiculous.

I’ve been living in a granny flat since September which has been having issues since I moved in due to the fact that the owners appear to have completely DIY’d everything. There is mould appearing on walls where they aren’t sealed from the outside, there is no insulation as there is gaps around doors and windows and holes cut through walls for pipes in kitchen etc. The shower isn’t sealed so water runs out the back of the tiles and under the rest of the floor in the bathroom and what they have used instead of grout for the badly done tiles is literally dissolving. The toilet is not installing correctly so it leeches sewerage smells out of the attachment to the floor. And there appears to be water around electrical sockets. I should’ve moved in and I know that but it has definitely deteriorated since my inspection before I moved in.

The issue is despite being a tenant with a reliable income and clean rental history with no arrears I don’t fit into the neat boxes that are required for rental applications. I’m self employed, and part of my recent rental history looks dodgy as despite being absolutely legal (rented an apartment of the building the company I was a director of was leasing). I know I need to move and probably urgently but does anyone have any advice on how they would go about securing a in my position given the competitive market we are in.

Self Employment Issues