prospective tennant asking about bad credit on house

keyboard

hi i have just interviewed a potential tennant about letting a property from me..... however he asked of there was any bad credit on the house... he explained he had moved from london to the midlands and he said he had letters and balifs coming to his last address........ none of the other tennants i have interviewed asked me this before..... and usually i ask for bank statements and a refrence from a previous landlord...... however having done some research i feel maybe i need to check the credit reference agencies too about this person... i haven't done this before. I am not part of a letting agency just a one man band...so little experience of this sort of thing....

just wondering worse case scenario if the guy rented out the house and accumalated debt against the house and then did a runner.... where does that leave me ?....... would i be liable ? what protection do i need to put in place ?

cheers

Doozergirl

Bad credit goes with a person, not an address. It seems to me that your tenant is worried about being the victim of someone else's mess rather than a bad debtor themselves.

If your tenant does receive debt related post then it is generally better to phone the company involved and explain that the person no longer lives there, than to return letters. If any bailiffs do call then showing ID would be enough to make them go away - I've not had any bailiffs call at any of our addresses because I've always just opened any official mail (where I've not had forwarding addresses) called the company, and explained.

Of course, it is worth your while as a landlord to have their credit rating checked as you want the rent paid! Any debt left behind is not your problem or concern.

If you ask at the forums on www.landlordzone.co.uk they will refer you to the referencing agencies they use.

speedtwin

A lot of agents when they take the deposit say one of the conditions of giving it back is a forwarding address which it is sent to. This can help if you then get problems

cherry_blossom_6

I would say he has a very good question there. I would hate to have to waste my time and money phoning companies where someone had run up bills at that address. If anything he sounds a more sensible rented to me.

real1314

I'd tell the proespective tenant to send back any letters received for previous occupants marked "RTS". And if any bailiffs come calling, to give them your number as landlord. Keeps them in the clear, you can refer the bailiffs on to the new address if you have one.

keyboard

hi both

thanks for the useful bits of information.. especially including the cause about a forwarding address.

I have just emailed the guy asking the following informations from him.

Full name and date of birth
photocopy of bill at current address
Photocopy of 3 months bank statements
Photocopy of your indefinite stay letter from the home office
photocopy of driving license
Full current address please state how long you have been living here
full previous address please state how long you have lived there.

Contact at job agency who he worked for.

Previous landlord address from previous rented houses.


Hopefully if he can proudce this I should feel better. I have asked to see the originals as well.

PROFESSIONAL_LANDLORD

just wondering worse case scenario if the guy rented out the house and accumalated debt against the house and then did a runner.... where does that leave me ?....... would i be liable ?

NO! although utility companies can demand a deposit if there's a history of non payment on a property.

Full name and date of birth
photocopy of bill at current address
Photocopy of 3 months bank statements
Photocopy of your indefinite stay letter from the home office
photocopy of driving license
Full current address please state how long you have been living here
full previous address please state how long you have lived there.

Contact at job agency who he worked for.

Previous landlord address from previous rented houses.

I get the feeling you're not over the moon with this character,:rotfl:

Allways do a Search and Voters, charge a fee! £30 will cover your costs, and is a fair charge. If they don't check out tell the prospective tenant to get a full-time working GUARANTOR who is a home owner.

keyboard

Hi professional landlord

Do you think im being paranoid with what im asking for from him ?

Also what "search" and voters, charge are you talking about ?

not come accross this before.....


Cheers

epz_2

keyboard wrote: »

Contact at job agency who he worked for.

thats the bit that always gets me about renting, i really object to my work colleuges getting bothered to check what i earn and job status. it would be very simple to fake with a mate or even dummy number but is still an invasion of my privacy.

that said with the rest of that info you could probably empty somones bank account, set up huge loans and get a fake passport, sounds like a good way to run an identiy theft scam from a sublet.

$$$_12

As a very solvent renter, I'd be more concerned about the landlord's creditworthiness (are they in arrears? is it a BTL mortgage? etc) than any previous tenants.

dys

I think the question the tenant was asking was whether any previous tenants had ran up debts at that address and hence were debt collecters demands for payment letters being delivered there. It seems this question has been twisted around a bit to infer the tenant themselves would be causing a problem. The reply from $$$ is very interesting and I would suggest any tenant with good credit to do the same. Credit checks should work both ways, whilst landlords should be satisfied that a tenant will pay the rent each month, a tenant should also be confident that a) the landlord is not about to get into difficulty with a mortgage or default on a mortgage on the property, possibly resulting in the tennat having to find another property at short notice, and b) that there will not be a stream of debt related letters being delivered to that address for previous tenants because the landlord did not put into place proper procedures to ensure this did not happen.