It was all so simple - and cheaper - this time around

money@mirror.co.uk NHS nurse Rachel McEnery has been renting for five years. During that time she’s struggled to scrape together the high deposits she’s needed – ending up working extra shifts and having to ask her parents for money.

On her current rental she decided to give Canopy a go – and was astonished at the result. Rachel, 27, says: “The UK rental market is complicated and not easy for tenants.

“You have to pay a lot up front and sometimes it isn’t clear what all the costs will be. In the past I have had to pay a six-week deposit and a month’s rent up front on top of that – not easy on a nurse’s wage. Then I’ve had to find large sums for a new deposit when moving before having the current deposit paid back.

“That’s meant I’ve been stuck in a property I was unhappy in and had to live there longer than I wanted.

“I’ve done extra shifts to raise enough money and had to ask my parents for help. There are times when I had to pay rent in cash directly to a landlord. I wasn’t comfortable with that and prefer a bank transfer. There was no official record of my payments, and that worried me.”

Rachel, of Southampton, says she had to wait three months before she got her deposit back. And that only happened after a confrontation at her landlord’s home.

“Finally it was returned to me, minus 15% – with no explanation for the reduction,” she says. “A lot of my friends have encountered similar problems.

“That’s why I decided to try the depositfree insurance option. It was really useful not having to stump up a chunk of cash.

“I was able to use the money I had put aside for my deposit to buy some new furniture. Using this has meant I only had to pay my first month’s rent when I moved in. It’s the most stress-free move I’ve made yet.

“I’m also really pleased my regular rent payments get recorded on my credit report. It could help when I am in a position to become a buyer. It seems a much fairer system for renters.

“Often people are paying higher sums in rent each month than they would be if they had a mortgage.

“And then they get turned down when they try to get a mortgage. It doesn’t make sense.”