Tenant referencing

Mummyto4kids

Hi I need some help with tenant referencing,


I separated from my ex five years ago after discovering he had not been paying bills and had taken out credit in my name. There were other issues, but this was a big one.


I only discovered the extent to which my credit rating was damaged when I applied to rent a house and was declined because I had a CCJ from 2008 I didn't know about - I appreciate this sounds ridiculous, but I was fairly naïve and he used to sort all the bills and open my post etc.


I was fortunate enough that I got a private rental from someone for a year and then in Jan 2011 my now husband took out a rental and I worked on rebuilding my credit rating. I now have 3 old defaults which come off between Jan and July next year, no CCJ's, no late payments, I have a Luma credit card which I have been paying off each month then using it again so that it shows I can manage credit. I have successfully broken the financial associate link with my ex and a notice of correction is on file to explain that the defaults occurred at the time of my marriage breakdown.


We unfortunately after being here almost 4 years have been served notice as the landlord is selling up. We have found a house, viewing today but I am worried about the tenancy referencing process.


My husband is self employed and has six months of accounts but cant rent the property on his own due to the level of rent, so I have to apply as well.


I keep getting conflicting information about whether tenant referencing will include defaults or not, and then I was told perhaps disclose the whole situation to the letting agent, I can demonstrate that I earn £40k, I've had the same stable job for seven years, that I have a healthy bank balance and a small amount of savings and that the rent at our current property comes out of my bank on time each month - but I am not the actual tenant, just my husband.


On the forms you have to declare adverse credit, but another letting agent I spoke to said it only refers to CCJ's and bankruptcy not to defaults and the fact that theyre over 5 years old wont matter but I am really worried that I might fail the checks and we wont have anywhere to go.


I guess I am looking for anyone whose been in a similar situation or has advice to offer?


thank you

theartfullodger

Sorry to hear that:

As you probably know, just because someone sells a property does not end tenancy nor require you to leave..

Was the notice a S21 notice? (Many are invalid). Was a deposit paid, was it protected within 30 days of you paying it, had you been served the "prescribed information" before the s21 was served??

It is entirely up to landlord and/or agent what checks are run: My last tenants I didn;'t check at all (I know, I know, but there were reasons..so far they've been better than great) Checks can be only £7 each (I won;;'t ask what you've been charged..) see.
http://www.lettingref.co.uk/pricing
or for £8:95
http://www.nlatenantcheck.org.uk/services.aspx
- but most formal checks will pick up CCJs.

I sincerely hope you are taking legal action against ex for fraudulently taking loans in your name & have written to the credit referencing agencies explaining why there records are misleading.

Would suggest you go round & talk, face2face (smart, cheerful, expect them to be rude etc etc..) to as many agencies as you can where you are looking & explain you position: You may find someone:

What really p*ss*s landlords and agents off is being told one thing, then finding out reality is different: So explaining up-front may work.

Good luck!

Tixy

The only way a landlord/lettings agent will know that you have defaults or missed payments on your credit file is if you tell them, or show them a copy of your credit report yourself.

If they do a credit check on you they do not see the credit account data. All they can see if public information from the last 6 years (such as CCJs, bankruptcy/insolvency etc).

Mummyto4kids

Is that how it works? So on the form if I tick no to the adverse credit question then it will be likely to pass?


I keep reading how the tenant referencing can tell a letting agent about 6 years of credit history so this is whats confusing me

Tixy

Mummyto4kids wrote: »

I keep reading how the tenant referencing can tell a letting agent about 6 years of credit history so this is whats confusing me

This link http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=63305422&postcount=23
contains a number of posts from the experian rep on these boards to confirm what can and cannot be seen.

Mummyto4kids

Thank you so much for taking the time to help me - someone sent me this below which is what prompted my question. Some companies do claim that they do a full 6 year credit history check - so judging by whats above, theyre telling fibs?!


A **** Report is not merely a credit check. Data is carefully analysed from several reliable databases including:
Experian Consumer Credit
Dun & Bradstreet
RSA High Risk Tenant Repository
Equifax Locate Services
Call Credit Consumer Scoring Systems
International Credit Reference agencies

In addition, each applicant is scored using risk assessment algorithms based on their payment and credit file history.
The applicant's ability to pay the rent is also factored into this score. Referees are contacted directly and data that may not have been disclosed by the applicant is investigated fully to ensure that the individual is suitable to enter into the agreement under consideration.

Guest101

Mummyto4kids wrote: »

Thank you so much for taking the time to help me - someone sent me this below which is what prompted my question. Some companies do claim that they do a full 6 year credit history check - so judging by whats above, theyre telling fibs?!


A **** Report is not merely a credit check. Data is carefully analysed from several reliable databases including:
Experian Consumer Credit
Dun & Bradstreet
RSA High Risk Tenant Repository
Equifax Locate Services
Call Credit Consumer Scoring Systems
International Credit Reference agencies

In addition, each applicant is scored using risk assessment algorithms based on their payment and credit file history.
The applicant's ability to pay the rent is also factored into this score. Referees are contacted directly and data that may not have been disclosed by the applicant is investigated fully to ensure that the individual is suitable to enter into the agreement under consideration.

This is how it SHOULD work...

1: you apply, answering all criteria to the best of ur abilities.
2: ll either accepts or declines u
3: checks are made to make sure nothing else pops up, if Uve been honest it shouldn't
4: if it does then they are at liberty to say no and keep the application fee
5: if nothing else comes up, but the ll says no for whatever reason, then ur application fee should be returned to u

Data such as defaults is available to credit agencies, based upon the premise to lend. I've never heard of ( but wouldn't exclude completely ) of checks on defaults etc but tenant reference agencies. 99/100 times it's ccjs and bankruptcy that shows, nothing else

G_M

I believe the 'scoring' provided by the tenant referencing agencies is based amongst other things on repayment history/defaults etc.

Specific instances of defaults are not shown, but the overall score takes them into account - at least that's what I always thought. Perhaps I'm wrong.

Mummyto4kids

I joined Checkmyfile yesterday and this is what they've produced for me when I entered all my details - so am hoping its goof news - this might help someone else if they are having the same concerns as well - thank you for all your help




The following Credit Scores are based on your Public Credit Reports.

Removed for privacy
This score is above average. The scale below shows how you compare to other Experian, Equifax and Callcredit Credit Reports we have scored across the UK in the last year.








Public Credit Reports are provided by the credit reference agencies to more companies than any other type of credit report.
A wide range of government agencies, companies, banks and lenders rely solely on Public Credit Reports. All government agencies, together with certain companies, including the Student Loans Company, use Public Credit Reports because they are not permitted to view your credit history.
Many banks, that do not share your account performance with the credit reference agencies, also rely only on Public Credit Reports.
Because Public Credit Reports do not contain your account history, there are sometimes wide differences between the Credit Scores that some lenders see, and those that are only able to view Public Credit Reports.
All organisations that search you for employment vetting purposes, or for tenant checking purposes, are only permitted to view your Public Credit Report.
As the name suggests, the majority of information on Public Credit Reports comes from publicly available sources, such as Electoral Roll information and Insolvency and Judgment information. It follows that your Credit Scores based on Public Credit Reports should be almost identical, no matter which credit reference agency is searched, as each credit reference agency purchases the underlying data from the same source. If there is a difference, it is usually caused by an address formatting issue.

Mummyto4kids

Hi, following the above post about the validity of the S.21 notice, I have a query. The tenancy was taken out 18th Feb 2011, and has been renewed annually since then for a 12 month period every time, so our next one runs out 17th Feb 2015. A friend who works in housing has looked at the notice and raised a couple of things.

First - in Jan last year the letting agent "A" came out to the house, did our inspection and signed two copies of the new 12 month agreement - I have now found both copies so it appears we didnt send ours back.

In Nov 14 letting agent "B" wrote to us telling us they had taken over letting agent "A" and we now needed to pay them the rent - the landlord confirmed this and we changed our standing order.

The S.21 is served under S.21 (1)(b) which my friend says is the grounds for a periodic tenancy - i.e. no new agreement was signed - but it was - as we have both copies. She thinks it should be S.21(1)(a) - is this just a technicality?

Also where it says landlord address - bearing in mind his full address is on all four tenancy agreements, this section merely says "Mr X XXXX, c/o XXXX Property Services" - no address for either, although obviously we know the letting agent address.

Everything else looks right but do these things make the notice invalid?

many thanks for all your help