Renting a flat in UK is time-consuming and stressful procedure. The most troublesome part is viewing and referencing. Viewing is the procedure to book an appointment to look around the property. This step is to provide an opportunity to take a closer look into flat. However, the UK housing market is overheated so in many cases there is a last-minute cancellation and in the worst-case the landlord does not show up without any notice. I was flaked up on viewing several times without any prior notice. Then there comes a referencing which is landlord right to evaluate affordability and credibility of their tenant. This is crucial step in UK because it is very challenging for landlord to evict tenants by not paying the rent because of cumbersome administrative procedure. In this step, landlord need to decide how much tenant need to pay upfront. Since there is no cap of upfront rent payment, the market practice is 6 months to 1 year but there can be increase if you are foreigner.

Thank you for this Aciel! It does sound tedious and cumbersome. Also, it seems somewhat discriminatory for foreign tenants.