how do you choose a tenant?

ruby28

just wondering how people pick a tenant when they have a number of people interested in renting their property. Do you initially go with the first person to leave a deposit or the person you feel most at ease with?

BitterAndTwisted

Very carefully!

It's got nothing to do with who saw it first or who you think is most congenial and everything to do with their references and their creditworthiness. This is a business transaction so it MUST be done in a businesslike fashion.

Are you vetting tenants yourself now?

ruby28

we plan to carry out credit checks and obtain references etc but just wondered if other people did credit checks for everyone that was interested and then chose the most suitable tenant or picked the one they felt most at ease with then did the credit checks on that person. Then if they came back unsuitable move on to the next applicant, if that makes sense.

BitterAndTwisted

I would have thought that sight of their bank statements and pay-slips would suggest who might be the most reliable at first sight to carry out credit-checks on. Seen proof of ID , got their NI numbers, their employer's details?

Being as ease with someone is never a good indicator of whether they have the means to pay the rent or not. Some "professional tenants" have turned being amenable into an art-form.

tbs624

Bank statements tell a LL very little of value and a request to see them may be viewed by many Ts as overly instruive. Many Ts also refer not to hand over a NINO which links to personal records that are no business of any LL.

Photographic ID such as a passport or a driving licence should always be requested. You may like to offer the potential T a copy of your own too, so that they can be reassured of your ID. At least one of the other LLs on here has said that he has done this

tbs624

ruby28 wrote: »

we plan to carry out credit checks and obtain references etc but just wondered if other people did credit checks for everyone that was interested and then chose the most suitable tenant

It's fairer from a Ts viewpoint to do it one at a time - would you want to pay out for a third party "credit check" if you hadn't been told that the property was provisionally yours, subject only to the final hurdle of that credit check being satisfactory?

After a while, it does become straightforward to whittle them down from several initial applicants, to a shortlist , and then one whom you wish to "pursue" over and above the others. Dealing promptly with the paperwork means that you should still be able to get back to other potential Ts if the first one falls through

Bear in mind that a current LL may give a good/ambiguous reference because they want the T out of their property at the earliest possible point and that "professional Ts" ,who like to blag a free ride at a LL's expense, can spot a newbie LL a mile off , and can often seem utterly charming in the early stages.

david29dpo

Avoid anyone with tattoos and a pit-bull.

tbs624

Is it that specific combo that puts you off or are tatts on their own okay?

sooz

tbs624 wrote: »

Is is that specific combo that puts you off or are tatts on their own okay?

Perhaps it's just the visible ones that puts you on the NO list?
Or is a full strip & search required at the viewing?

Brb

There is one difference between tattooed ppl and non-tattooed ppl.

I don't give a stuff that you don't have a tattoo :P

mostlycheerful

Chuck’em all up in the air and see which one lands on it’s head and that’s the one you want cos it’s obviously more brainy cos the head came down first.

Well, women do ten times less crime and violence than men so you’re ten times more likely to get a good payer if you stick to women.

People with jobs and wearing suits and driving good cars and carrying iphones are better bets than sad grubby druggy bums on the dole covered in tattoos saying hate and anarchy.

Intelligent people tend to be better payers than thickies. So bank workers are a better bet than shop workers.

Germans and Japanese workers and students tend to be polite, civilised, intelligent, well behaved, honest and very efficient about paying and issues arising. Spaniards and Italians often have a tendency to be a lot more rock’n’roll. Africans and Jamaicans? Er, nuff sed.

People offering a full set of references that all check out and a normal sensible story about why they want the place are better than people with no references and a dodgy or sad story about why they’ve just been chucked out of their last place and are now desperate for anything they can get.

People who are polite and professional and friendly and relaxed tend to be better than people who are shifty and argumentative and pushy and inarticulate. Of course many fraudsters and con artists are charming and smooth and come across very well so as Shakespeare got one of his characters to say "there's no art to find the mind's construction in the face" except that that's not actually true as you can often tell a lot about most people by how they talk and conduct themselves. Happy hunting.