Tenant Referencing - Who Do You Use?

gazfocus

For the landlords amongst you that don't use a letting agent, just curious as to who you use for tenant referencing? Ideally need a reference to come back within a couple of days and would like credit check, affordability and landlord check. 

Richard1212

Although I use a management company and credit rating agency investigations are always necessary, I DO tell my agents to obtain references ; and they are 1. previous landlord  ;  2. the prospective tenants' bank ( permission is needed  for that) and  3.the prospective tenant's employer or employers over the past 5 years. 

lika_86

Richard1212 said:

Although I use a management company and credit rating agency investigations are always necessary, I DO tell my agents to obtain references ; and they are 1. previous landlord  ;  2. the prospective tenants' bank ( permission is needed  for that) and  3.the prospective tenant's employer or employers over the past 5 years. 

Sounds like overkill. 

dimbo61

https://www.nrla.org.uk/services/tenant-checks/tenant-referencing

Richard1212

lika_86 said:

Richard1212 said:

Although I use a management company and credit rating agency investigations are always necessary, I DO tell my agents to obtain references ; and they are 1. previous landlord  ;  2. the prospective tenants' bank ( permission is needed  for that) and  3.the prospective tenant's employer or employers over the past 5 years. 

Sounds like overkill. 

If you knew the problems that choosing risky tenants can cause, you would go for overkill I can assure you.

ellieellie1955

Previous landlords usually

lookstraightahead

Richard1212 said:

Although I use a management company and credit rating agency investigations are always necessary, I DO tell my agents to obtain references ; and they are 1. previous landlord  ;  2. the prospective tenants' bank ( permission is needed  for that) and  3.the prospective tenant's employer or employers over the past 5 years. 

What info do you ask for from the bank?

BobT36

FIVE YEARS of employment is a bit much, isn't it? 
Do you just want to know that you'll get your rent, or are you wanting to size them up as if you're giving a 25y mortgage? 

Even my own employer didn't ask for FIVE YEARS of previous employment references for the job... 

Mstty

Richard1212 said:

lika_86 said:

Richard1212 said:

Although I use a management company and credit rating agency investigations are always necessary, I DO tell my agents to obtain references ; and they are 1. previous landlord  ;  2. the prospective tenants' bank ( permission is needed  for that) and  3.the prospective tenant's employer or employers over the past 5 years. 

Sounds like overkill. 

If you knew the problems that choosing risky tenants can cause, you would go for overkill I can assure you.

And in this market you can be as picky as you like.

Of course if someone doesn't want to provide the information they can just look at a different property to rent.

We may be going down a similar road. Where by in the past word of mouth and a quick check we will make the application more formal.

lookstraightahead

Mstty said:

Richard1212 said:

lika_86 said:

Richard1212 said:

Although I use a management company and credit rating agency investigations are always necessary, I DO tell my agents to obtain references ; and they are 1. previous landlord  ;  2. the prospective tenants' bank ( permission is needed  for that) and  3.the prospective tenant's employer or employers over the past 5 years. 

Sounds like overkill. 

If you knew the problems that choosing risky tenants can cause, you would go for overkill I can assure you.

And in this market you can be as picky as you like.

Of course if someone doesn't want to provide the information they can just look at a different property to rent.

We may be going down a similar road. Where by in the past word of mouth and a quick check we will make the application more formal.

What you don't want to do though is shoot your self in the foot using outdated criteria. I rented because I moved so my job was new, for example. Picky needs to be the right kind of pickiness. 

Mstty

lookstraightahead said:

Mstty said:

Richard1212 said:

lika_86 said:

Richard1212 said:

Although I use a management company and credit rating agency investigations are always necessary, I DO tell my agents to obtain references ; and they are 1. previous landlord  ;  2. the prospective tenants' bank ( permission is needed  for that) and  3.the prospective tenant's employer or employers over the past 5 years. 

Sounds like overkill. 

If you knew the problems that choosing risky tenants can cause, you would go for overkill I can assure you.

And in this market you can be as picky as you like.

Of course if someone doesn't want to provide the information they can just look at a different property to rent.

We may be going down a similar road. Where by in the past word of mouth and a quick check we will make the application more formal.

What you don't want to do though is shoot your self in the foot using outdated criteria. I rented because I moved so my job was new, for example. Picky needs to be the right kind of pickiness. 

In your particular instance you probably wouldn't be picked under what we are considering and discussing moving forwards.

We also consider local people first in our approach. That has always been the case though as we always wanted to house local people. Even refusing the bribes of London Boroughs to offload their tenants they could not house.

Interesting times ahead, without advertising we may have a property becoming free in about 10 weeks and already have 22 applicants by word of mouth.