Tenant Screening

Letting Agents, Landlords and Property Management

Landlords have 4 core requirements:

1. The tenant can rent the property legally
2. The ability and willingness to pay in full and on time
3. A reasonable likelihood of caring for the property
4. The tenant understands decorum and is unlikely to be a nuisance to neighbours

Let's consider the following scenarios:

• The tenant's income either falls short or is unstable
• The tenant cannot prove sufficient income or savings
• The tenant has serious health or wellness issues preventing regular work
• The tenant has current or previous CCJs
• The tenant caused many issues in the previous building leading to nuisance reports
• The tenant has been evicted from a previous property
• The tenant is not a permanent resident or citizen, or the current visa/right to remain expires before the end of the tenancy agreement
• The tenant has or had ties to criminal elements, money laundering, drug cartels or terrorist financing

Implications

When a person is unlikely to pass standard background checks, the temptation to fabricate documentation increases. Now consider the significant threat of identity theft and fraud, and the increasing number of fake documents for sale, and you may find yourself on the receiving end: Checking out the "Real" John Smith for CCJs when in fact your applicant is a different person entirely. Should you or your background screening firm wrongly identify a tenant, landlords may well litigate against letting agents. Even if the tenant provides photo ID such as a passport, how can you tell that data has not been altered and a fake photo placed on top? It would require specialist training and realistically a scanner per office to ensure their validity, which would be too costly.