Letting Agencies Revisited...

Trajal

Hoping that James will see this..!

"Credit Check: We will carry out a detailed credit check, including research into any unpaid loans, credit card debts or previous debt problems. Based on the results of the credit history check, we may recommend that a guarantor be requested before you rent a private property to the candidate in question."

http://www.iamtheagent.com/rent-your-property/referencing-your-tenants.aspx

Is this possible?

I'm just in the process of renting from a different agency (don't want to say who it is here) who claim they do a basic credit check which assesses based on IVAs, Bankruptcies and CCJs - basically anything public.

I'm hoping that the information above is just marketing nonsense, I'll be extremely upset and angry (as well as out of pocket by about £300) if my application is going to be based on information as it appears above.

James, would you mind taking a look and seeing if these guys use any of your products and also confirm (once more!) that this sort of information is definitely not available from the credit file for anyone other than a financial institution and certainly NOT a lettings agent please?

Cheers, apologies for the paranoia...

rizla_king

Did you look at the sample report in that link?

Trajal

I did. My concerns weren't the public information or residence checks but rather what is shown as a 'Credit Risk Score' and 'adverse data' Y/N field.

If that is drawn only from public information then I'm not so concerned, if it's from previous issues then I will have a serious cause for concern. Like I said, hoping that James will be able to make a confirmation that the information displayed is actually purely derived from public information and no, as they state in their blurb, taken from previous debt problems, etc...!

rizla_king

I doubt James can speak for Equifax as it is their scoring that report seems to use.

Trajal

rizla_king wrote: »

I doubt James can speak for Equifax as it is their scoring that report seems to use.

I'm sure, given the regulations surrounding who is able to share what information with who, that James will want to clarify the source from which that score is derived.

As I understand it (and have previously spoken about on these very boards) the score should be purely related to public information and not a blended score of information which relates to an individuals private details.

Financial data such as previous debt problems/credit cards etc should not, to the best of my research, be available to a landlord or lettings agent. They are not providing a credit product, they are being paid in advance. They are not regulated by the usual financial regulators and they are not lending any money.

This should prohibit them from seeing information outside that which is available to public knowledge.

I simply want that clarified and hopefully James will be happy to do just that as it would be something of a data protection issue if it were not the case!

Trajal

Oh I just realised what you meant - yes it's the wrong company but I don't know that there's an Equifax representative and I'm assuming that he will know what his own company do at least. Given the size of Equifax I'm further assuming that they aren't going to do anything completely out of line and show that sort of private information to someone who has no entitlement to it.

Experian_company_representative

Landlords (or their agents) shouldn't be able to access your private credit history data or a score based on it. That is restricted to data-sharing lenders. I don't believe any landlords have joined any of the credit reference agency credit-data-sharing schemes, so they should only have access to public data such as CCJs whichever CRA they use.

James

Trajal

Thanks James. Goodness knows why the company above makes those claims about being able to see existing credit card or previous debt problems!

I'll be biting my nails until the application comes back approved of course, and will be very interested if I fail as I know I have a few problems on my credit file but absolutely no issues with CCJs or other public data.

rizla_king

The Equifax tenant check request menu.

https://www.uk.equifax.com/ee4_old/WebHelp/Tenant_Verification_Report_Menu.htm

rizla_king

https://www.veri-check.co.uk/resources/media/Equifax-Press-Release.pdf

No mention of checking credit account data?

Trajal

Cheers Rizla King, I wonder what the information contained in their 'consumer report' and 'score' is searching through. According to every source I can find in legislation it should be only public information.

Experian have been kind enough to confirm that (twice now). I wish Equifax would do something similar. I'm not trying to use this information to defraud anyone, I'm just keen to find out if I'm throwing £300 application fees for a flat down the non-refundable drain..