Need advice on opportunity to get on the property ladder (UK).

Hi Reddit,

I'm fairly new to the site so I hoping this is the best sub reddit for my question.

I'm 24, married and me and my wife are renting a property that we have lived in for just over a year now. The reason for my post is that we have an option to buy this property within the next two years and I need advice on how to get our acts together and make it happen. Given that we love the house, thinking of starting a family soon and can really see ourselves living here whilst doing that, it's something we really want to make happen.

We rent the house privately and the landlords are great. They are a married couple, approaching retirement and they really give us no hassle at all. They own six other properties that they rent out also. The house that we rent from them is the only one of the bunch that they lived in. They were in this place for over twenty years, raised their children here and done a lot of work on it (I have a friend who lives in the same street, the houses were built at the same time and are the same design so I have seen first hand the level of work they have put into making this house what it is). Their very genuine people, I can't stress enough that I trust them 100% in this situation.

We agreed at moving in that we would rent for 2-3 years and then they would give us an option to buy as they would be looking to sell it at that time, shortly before they retire. This would give us time to save a decent deposit to put down on the mortgage. We are now one year in and not had a great start. Problems with jobs have left us with very little savings and some defaults on our credit reports for paying several bills late on occasion.

I have not long started a new job that is paying me good money but previously worked for a company for two years, the last six months of which I never received wages on time (sometimes 2-3 weeks late, monthly pay). The place was going down the toilet but it took me six months to get out of there. Now mine and my wifes income combined is leaving us with around 50% left after all bills and expenses and I feel pretty confident we can get the money together over two years if our circumstances don't change drastically.

Here comes the first real question. Our landlords have recently said to us that should the time come and we were not quite there with the deposit they would offer help by way of adding up to £8,000.00 to our deposit and acquire this back by adding that figure to the value of the house...

Is this a good idea? Should I consider it an option if these circumstances arise? Like I mentioned above, they are really nice people. Genuinely seem to want to help us achieve this. They seem to have taken a liking to us and I think they like the idea of approving the people who will take over this property. What I want to know is what implications this would have on a mortgage itself, repayments, equity and all the other stuff I know little about.

The other issue is we currently have poor credit ratings. We have never had any credit of any kind. Never felt reason to as we've mostly had good earnings (around £45,000.00 per year combined at present, have earned more in the past). As mentioned above, the past six months have been a struggle and we have incurred some defaults. Add to that some petty debt from our younger days that we've cleared (fell victim to the Utility Estimated Bills a few times amongst a few others).

How can we repair this damage to our credit reports and increase our chances of getting accepted on a mortgage in two years? Is this even possible to do within two years? I've read about using credit cards strategically to strengthen a credit rating and would be interested to hear some thoughts on this.

Would also be interested on any tips to really buckle down and budget/save to our maximum potential.

Thanks for taking the time read and I hope I've give enough details.