Tenant wants reference from my previous tenant

antrobus

Superted1512 wrote: »

....However, as this is so out of the norm, how will my previous tenants feel about me giving out their details? I would clearly need to ask their permission first, but if they were unwilling? ....

Clearly you do need to ask their permission first. If they are unwilling, they are unwilling. You can't go around handing out personal information to all and sundry without their agreement. As a landlord you have certain responsibilities to comply with the Data Protection Act.

Superted1512 wrote: »

......Any thoughts from the MSE community?....

How hard is it to find tenants for your property? Is Mr A the only prospective tenant available? Telling Mr A that the DPA prevents you from complying with his request (or any similar kind of polite BS) whilst moving on to the next available prospective tenant might be an option.

SuzieSue

silvercar wrote: »

The risk is that, whereas a current tenant should show up on the electoral register and can therefore be proven to having been the tenant in the property, a prior tenant could be a personal friend of the landlord masquerading as a happy tenant.

Yes, that is a risk with many types of reference, but if the prospective tenant actually speaks to the old tenant he will be able to ask him the sorts of questions that only someone who had a detailed knowledge of the property would know (eg details of the heating system, the days rubbish and recycling are collected etc).

agrinnall

While it's a clever idea, and I may try it myself as I'll be moving to rented accommodation when my house sale goes through, it would surely only really be a workable tactic in areas where there are more properties than there are prospective tenants. If the LL or LA can take their pick of tenants why would they choose one who will cause them extra work when they can just move on to someone who is desperate to move in?

SuzieSue

agrinnall wrote: »

While it's a clever idea, and I may try it myself as I'll be moving to rented accommodation when my house sale goes through, it would surely only really be a workable tactic in areas where there are more properties than there are prospective tenants. If the LL or LA can take their pick of tenants why would they choose one who will cause them extra work when they can just move on to someone who is desperate to move in?

Yes, if there is an oversupply of decent tenants in a particular area such as in London, then a tenant who does this does risk losing the property and they probably shouldn't bother. However, my friend's two properties are in in the South and to the north of London and he wants to attract the best tenants and so would welcome the chance to prove that he is a good landlord.

CreditCrunchie

This is such a great idea! We have just signed the contracts on a new house but may still ask anyway. The landlord (looking after the tenancy himself) seems lovely, but he is a first time landlord and as we've been shoved from pillar to post in the last 3 years it would be great to have some idea of his trustworthyness from a previous tenant.

tumbledowngirl

SuzieSue wrote: »

But surely you would stop using them if they were slow as your tenants would be more likely to leave if they got fed up with the LA.

We've had problems actually finding out they are slow until a problem arises. For eg tenants contact LA to say they've broken a pain of glass in the front door trying to open it (tenant suggests it happened because the door was sticking). LA contacts us, we instruct them to repair. We're invoiced and have the cost deducted from our rent account. Only when we have reason to go to the property 4 months later do we find out that the job hasn't been finished - tenant has never mentioned it...or if they have, we haven't been told.
Obviously, we then give the LA a bo***cking and he subsequently blames his contractor.

We always deal with tenant issues as soon as they are raised by the LA BUT we are only able to do so if the LA tells us - of course a tenant could think that we are dragging our heels and not dealing with any problems if they've reported them to the LA but we know nothing about them.

poppysarah

CreditCrunchie wrote: »

This is such a great idea! We have just signed the contracts on a new house but may still ask anyway. The landlord (looking after the tenancy himself) seems lovely, but he is a first time landlord and as we've been shoved from pillar to post in the last 3 years it would be great to have some idea of his trustworthyness from a previous tenant.

Bit late if you've signed a tenancy

GobbledyGook

I had a prospective tenant ask this recently. I gave them the details of two former tenants (skipping the last one after explaining he was my brother-in-law). They didn't actually contact either of them, they just wanted to be sure I'd be happy for them to do so (obviously I asked first though as I was unaware of it).

They had had serious trouble with a landlord before and felt that a landlord happy for them to speak to previous tenants is more likely to be a decent landlord. With so many dodgy ones around it's understandable, I'm always surprised when prospective tenants have no questions to ask or seem to think that I'm doing them a big favour renting to them.

theartfullodger

Never been asked for this but good on this tenant for asking!

It amazes me how little is asked for e.g. I've never been asked for proof of oownership of property, prrof of landlord insurance or permission of lender to let.

Come on tenants!

Pixie5740

theartfullodger wrote: »

Never been asked for this but good on this tenant for asking!

It amazes me how little is asked for e.g. I've never been asked for proof of oownership of property, prrof of landlord insurance or permission of lender to let.

Come on tenants!

That depends on where you live though. In areas where rental demand is high, tenants asking for this kind of information are seen as being trouble. Why bother providing them with the information if there are 20 other people wanting to rent the property?

I would like to some home reports for rental properties introduced though. They'd be more useful than those Energy Performance Certificates.