Tenants taken out loans in my name

JamesY201

I'll make this as brief as I can sticking to the facts alone. Tenants moved in last July 2019. Went through an estate agent who also managed the property. Tenants defaulted payments almost immediately. Attempts at eviction were delayed due the Christmas period, and the estate agents being exceedingly slow. The tenants ultimately left on their own accord in March 2020 on the day lockdown began. The court hearing through possessions claims has also been delayed indefinitely due to Covid 19. 
I applied for interest free credit on a kitchen dresser yesterday and was turned down. I was surprised as I have a 999 rating with Experian. The company I was attempting to buy through uses Transunion, and I checked my credit rating through them and discovered 3 accounts made in my name, one to Vodafone and two to Shop Direct, two of which had defaulted, hence being declined for credit. The date of birth they had used to apply for credit were wrong. I checked Equifax and Experian, both of which have no records of these transactions. 
The dates of the transactions correspond to the tenants residency, as do the default dates from when they left. I suspect it is them, moreover I suspect they do this frequently, which is why I am surprised they passed a reference check. The estate agents claim they did their due diligence, but with data protection, they are unwilling to disclose what they actually did. I have informed both Vodafone and Shop Direct about the discrepancies and await their investigations. I have also completed a police report, as I suspect the previous tenants.
I guess what I am asking is where the mistakes occurred. Were Vodafone and Shop Direct in error for giving credit with minimal information? I already have many grievances against the estate agents due to mistakes over the last 12 months that I could not list succinctly. What constitutes a sufficient reference? They said they had a credit report, employment reference and previous landlord reference. I am not sure if they carried out any ID check, and if so, would that not be standard practice?

D3xt3r5L4b

If the date of birth is incorrect then it shouldn’t be on your credit files regardless who applied for it

MEM62

JamesY201 said:

The estate agents claim they did their due diligence, but with data protection, they are unwilling to disclose what they actually did.

Disclosing that action they took is not a privacy issue, although they may try to argue that any data they have on the tenants is covered.  Sadly, many estate agents have a poor understanding of privacy legislation.  I would argue that you have a right to see the information under 'legitimate interest'.  Had a similar issue with my agents not providing me with background information on my new tenant when I requested it for insurance purposes. They changed their stance once I gave them chapter and verse.         

Fletcher86

If as you suspect, the tenants do this regularly (take credit out in others names) then bear in mind that this information will not be shown on their credit records, it will have been added to the reports of those names who they fraudulently applied in. Therefore the estate agent may well have done their due-diligence correctly and nothing negative appeared.

Also bear in mind that the level of data an estate agent has access to when doing a credit check will be less than you are seeing on your file because they aren’t a lender. They will see public data such as voters roll, CCJs, bankruptcies and IVAs but not the detail of debts such a loans, credit cards, bank accounts etc.

It does appear that there has been an issue with Shop Direct and Vodafone in terms of them opening these accounts with the wrong dates of birth, but you won’t get anything out of them in terms of detail on their procedures. It’s best to just focus on raising the dispute so these records are removed from your Transunion file. I also recommend getting a copy of your Equifax file in case they are also registered there.

JamesY201

It didn't show up on either Equifax nor Experian. I am not sure if the tenants provided proof of identity as this would. I guess landlord and employment references can be faked.

SpreadableToast

JamesY201 said:

It didn't show up on either Equifax nor Experian. I am not sure if the tenants provided proof of identity as this would. I guess landlord and employment references can be faked.

I don't see why an employment reference would include any of this information and it doesn't seem like a landlord one would either.  The employer would have no idea what they're up to at home and IF they'd done it to their previous landlord maybe they haven't found out about it yet.  I mean you didn't until very recently and if the accounts had defaulted that's probably over 6 months minimum.