Tenant referencing check list

If you have a tenant all lined up to rent your property, you’d best take a second and consider how you want to move forward with this tenant.  It is advisable to find out as much as you can about a tenant before renting them anything!! Enter tenant referencing.

You need to consider all the information needed in order to run a tenant reference.  It is advisable to credit check your tenant, reference their previous landlord and also their current employer to find out as much as you can about their financial responsibility, there landlords previous experience and if they are in stable employment.

In order to reference your tenant correctly you will need them to provide you with the following details first:

• Their full name
• Their current address as well as their addresses for the past three years
• Their employers name and email address
• Their current salary
• Their previous landlords name and email address
• A copy of their ID – passport or drivers licence, mostly for your own peace of mind and records.

If all of this seems a lot to gather, there is no need to worry, many websites assist landlords and property agents in carrying out these checks – often offering FREE landlord and employer references.  The best part is that they will provide you will all the paper you need your new tenant to fill out, hard copy or through email!  All the paper work has the correct legal declaration for background checks making your life much easier.  Online tenant referencing is one less thing a landlord or letting agent has to worry about.

 

To Let or not to Let

Here’s a question – is it better to rent your property quickly to the first tenant willing to give there bank details, or wait, with the risk of leaving it unoccupied for a little longer, for the ideal, dream tenant through tenant referencing.

Now, I’m sure when it comes to the perfect tenant there is no such thing – no-one is perfect, but people can be ideal and fit a situation well.  But, with most things that are ideal, they take a while to find and you may be on for a bit of a hunt!

I guess the questions is, does it make sense to wait, to leave the property unoccupied to have a good tenant, that pays and looks after your property.  Or is it better to jump right in with a tenant you are unsure of, who maybe isn’t so financially stable, whose employment is variable?

I think i would side with the first option; i’m not much of a risk taker, who wants to take risks with things like this.  Tenant referencing helps take the mystery out of the whole process, to fill in the gaps of the stories so you know if your tenant is the ideal one you were looking for, or just another chancer who was hoping there would be no credit referencing this time!!!  Waiting, and patience is a virtue, may be the best decision you make, it could save you the hassle of a rushed decision which leads to a troublesome tenant.  Troublesome tenants come in all shapes and sizes from the ones who don’t pay, to the ones who wreck the joint, to the ones who keeppets without your permission.

Tenant referencing is the way forward, it can make rushed decisions easier to make, especially if you find you have a great tenant after referencing right there.  Referencing your tenants online is easy and even if you have to turn a few tenants away because they don’t meet your ideal tenant then so be it – all in the name of finding the ideal one!!

 

To Let or not to Let

Here’s a question – is it better to rent your property quickly to the first tenant willing to give there bank details, or wait, with the risk of leaving it unoccupied for a little longer, for the ideal, dream tenant through tenant referencing.

Now, I’m sure when it comes to the perfect tenant there is no such thing – no-one is perfect, but people can be ideal and fit a situation well.  But, with most things that are ideal, they take a while to find and you may be on for a bit of a hunt!

I guess the questions is, does it make sense to wait, to leave the property unoccupied to have a good tenant, that pays and looks after your property.  Or is it better to jump right in with a tenant you are unsure of, who maybe isn’t so financially stable, whose employment is variable?

I think i would side with the first option; i’m not much of a risk taker, who wants to take risks with things like this.  Tenant referencing helps take the mystery out of the whole process, to fill in the gaps of the stories so you know if your tenant is the ideal one you were looking for, or just another chancer who was hoping there would be no credit referencing this time!!!  Waiting, and patience is a virtue, may be the best decision you make, it could save you the hassle of a rushed decision which leads to a troublesome tenant.  Troublesome tenants come in all shapes and sizes from the ones who don’t pay, to the ones who wreck the joint, to the ones who keep pets without your permission.

Tenant referencing is the way forward, it can make rushed decisions easier to make, especially if you find you have a great tenant after referencing right there.  Referencing your tenants online is easy and even if you have to turn a few tenants away because they don’t meet your ideal tenant then so be it – all in the name of finding the ideal one!!

 

Landlord win Buy to let court case

A landlord from Portsmouth has won a draw out legal battle against a surveyor who over estimated the rental income on the new built flat in Cobham.  This legal victory may just pave the way for others to follow.

The landlord, Emmett Scullion from  Portsmouth brought an flat in Cobham.  The flat was valued at the asking price but the surveyor advised that the flat could be rented out for £2000 per month.  Happy with this Emmett Scullion brought the flat based on these rental figures. However,  when  the time came to rent it was discovered that the flat would only be rented out for half of the original valuation.  He sold the property at a loss in 2006- before the downturn.  Needless to say Emmett Scullion felt slightly cheated.

With this in his mind he took legal action against the surveyors who advised him – Colleys, claiming the surveyor owed him duty of care.  Eventually, Scullion was award £72 000 this month for damages which cover his loss of rental income, and the transactional costs involved in purchasing and selling a flat.

With this case won – legal experts are commenting that they could encourage others to take the same actions as the landlords from Portsmouth.

So, surveyors may be shaking in their boots and scribbling notes to themselves saying that they must do better!!

Perhaps surveyor referencing will be the next big thing.

LettingRef provides FREE landlord  references and employer references to landlords and letting agents in the UK.

 

Animal loving tenant branded the tenant from hell.

An animal loving tenant in Anlaby was discovered by the RSPCA to have 50 cats, 10 dogs and a squirrel occupying her rented house. It was also discovered that the tenants boyfriend had 21 dogs and 2 giant tortoises in his home!

If you were ever unsure about renting to a tenant with pets, and were wondering if a landlord reference would help in anyway then read on and see how useful a landlords reference could be.

Ms Kindred Hummer was the animal lover who had a rented house overwhelmed with pets. Ms Hummer did claim to have named all the pets in the house and that she spent most of her time looking after them. She did however admit to not knowing there was a squirrel in the house – I ask of you when a situation arises that you do not know a squirrel is sharing your living space!!!

In light of the discovery, a previous landlord came forward to share his experiences of the tenant. He claimed to have had to spend thousands of pounds ‘gutting’ the rental due to the mess all the animals had made to the property. This landlord was lead to believe that Ms Hummer had 2 dogs, but in time saw her to have 60 dogs kept in the house and double garage. Ms Hummer lived here between March 2009 and March 2010, she was eventually evicted by the courts.

This landlords advise was “ “I would just warn other landlords to always visit the tenant’s previous address before you take them on.”. Or get a landlord reference, I am sure the previous landlords reference would have been less than complimentary given that he had to evict her and saved the new landlord the hassle of evicting Ms Hummer along with squirrel and petting zoo.

It is these examples which highlight the importance of contacting previous landlords and show there is no excuse not to. You have no-one to blame if the appropriate checks were not carried through. Many good online tenant referencing websites will offer landlord referencing for free. So, if it costs nothing and it saves a house riddled with pets and pet mess then it’s well worth giving it a go.

There is no problem with renting to tenants with pets if you are OK to have pets in your property, but you must check first, how many they have and if the previous landlord had any problems, save yourself some time and hassle and reference your tenants previous landlord.