Getting a loan can be difficult when you don't own your own home, but it's not impossible. An increasing number of companies are now offering what are called Tenant Loans. These loans are especially designed for people who don't own their home, and who instead rent their home - either from a private landlord, or from their local council.

Because you don't own a house, the lender, or bank, can't repossess your home if you don't make your regular loan payment. This is a benefit for you, but it also means that, for a bank, an unsecured tenant loan is much more risky than a secured loan - if you default on your loan, they have no way of getting their money back. This is why it is sometimes more difficult to get unsecured tenant loans, and is why the interest rate for unsecured tenants loans is often much higher than for a secured loan.

Tenant loans actually work in exactly the same was as a secured loan (just, without the security). You get a loan, and over time you repay it at a certain rate of interest.

The amount you can borrow is often lower than for a secured loan, but some companies can be prepared to lend more than £25,000. In exceptional circumstances, some companies may even be prepared to lend considerably more. But the average amount of loans for tenants to be somewhere in the £1,000 to £10,000 range. This is a level of risk that, should you fail to repay your loan, is acceptable to most lenders.

The repayment period for a tenant loan can vary widely. Some are very short term loans, and must be repaid over a period of less than a year, sometimes as short a period as six months. Other loans will be over a much longer period - for example five to ten years. Obviously, the longer the repayment period, the more interest you will have to pay overall, thus increasing the overall cost of your loan.

For amounts smaller than £1,000 a number of companies are also beginning to offer small cash loans. These very rarely require security, and are usually fairly easily accessible to tenants.

Many tenants are cursed with bad credit, and find it incredibly difficult to get any kind of loan.  And, unfortunately, once you are seen to be a bad credit risk, banks and loan companies become increasingly unwilling to lend money - because their computer calculations will show that the chance of their getting their money back are lower than for someone with good credit.

However, again, there is a growing number of companies that don't just specialize in loans for people with a poor credit rating, but specialize in loans for tenants with bad credit ratings.

Naturally, as with a regular loan, the bigger the risk you are judged to be, the higher the cost of the loan.  This is why bad credit loans for tenants are considerably more expensive than other loans for tenants.

Whatever you do, please be very careful when taking out any loan.  Always choose a reputable company, and if you are uncertain, take advice from someone like your Citizen's Advice Bureau.  And, always, always, avoid unlicensed loan sharks, as interest rates can rise to dizzying levels before you realize anything is wrong.