Tenant Referencing

Buy2LetExpert will begin the formal tenant referencing process by first providing an application form to each tenant asking a number of questions but including demands for:

• Photocopied ID (e.g. passport or drivers licence)
   
• National Insurance Number
   
• Full name, address history and date of birth
   
• Former Employment history
   
• Former landlord history
   
• Full bank details

The form should be provided with a request for the last 3 month’s bank statements from each of the prospective tenants. We would indicate that once the form was returned employers, past landlords, bank and credit reference agencies would likely be contacted to verify the information received.

It is at this point that a dialogue is often opened about potential problems. Some are quite normal. The applicant may be a student starting their first job or a self employed applicant or recently arrived from overseas. None of these examples are reasons to reject an applicant. Buy2LetExpert will be flexible and not lose sight of the fact that we are trying to reduce risk of rent default or other problems. Consequently part of the referencing process comes down to investing some time and engaging with employers, applicants, past landlords and agents and making a human decision not just reliant on ticking boxes.

Some potential tenants may lack an income stream but Buy2LetExpert may be satisfied that this will follow or there are sufficient saved funds. Use of a guarantor (often a parent) can be an option.

Taking short cuts on referencing is crazy as a bad tenant will cause hours of time and lost revenue and must be avoided.

Contracting out referencing or using an estate agent (who will probably contract out) to do the referencing is risky. The person who loses most if a tenant goes bad is not the agent or credit reference agency. It is the landlord! Agents may be under pressure to “get the deal” and may have good reason to do a poor job. Agencies often have a large number of clients with one or two properties each. The risk to their business from one or two problem cases is not high! However, if you own the one or two properties in question, the problem is clearly huge!!
 

Maximisation of rental potential for
the minimal investment