Question About being a Lanlord and renting a property out

xlnc99

On behalf of a family member and not me.
They have had a property for a few years now all paid off. It has been rented out to the same tenants for the last 5 years. It was done directly and not through a broker or estate agent. The tenancy agreement was drawn out ourselves. Have had no real issues, a few late payments (few days) over the last 5 years but generally thus far one of the lucky ones as they once had a nightmare tenant who ruined the house and left a mess without paying. Got a CCJ on them but they disappeared- couldn't find them. Ending up losing both on the rent and the mess of the house. Lesson was learnt then.

My question is i have thought about this and its never occured to me before, but are we as landlords allowed to use their rent payments and report it to their credit files. Just so its incentive of the tenants paying on time each month. 

If so - how can we do this?

Advice much appreciated

greatcrested

No.

You have no access to their credit records other than than by getting a CCJ recorded by the courts.

Grumpy_chap

There are rules about who can access and report credit files.  They are quite detailed but, in summary as I understand it, as a Landlord you cannot, but a suitably registered Agent can.  I doubt you will find an Agent willing to retrospectively get involved.  My advice is to use an Agent as it provides you, and the tenant, with protection and avoids a lot of the hassle.

anselld

It would be voluntary on the part of the Tenant but you can use a third party service such as creditladder to facilitate this.

dimbo61

Please join one of the Landlord associations such as the RLA and you can download a legal tenancy agreement.
You need to do things right and proved the correct paperwork and right checks EPC, GSC, EICR 

[Deleted User]

Landlords can register for a service called Credit Ladder but I think the tenants still need to give permission for you to report to their credit files.  Even if not I doubt you could do it retrospectively and if you have a tenant who doesn't give a monkeys about a CCJ I doubt some late payment markers or defaults are going to make any difference.

Comms69

Lover_of_Lycra said:

Landlords can register for a service called Credit Ladder but I think the tenants still need to give permission for you to report to their credit files.  Even if not I doubt you could do it retrospectively and if you have a tenant who doesn't give a monkeys about a CCJ I doubt some late payment markers or defaults are going to make any difference.

I believe - though im not 100% - the service actually collects rent and then pays it.