Counting the Cost of Tenant Demand
By:
Colin Campbell
With tenant demand currently out-stripping home ownership in the UK, landlords can expect on average 5.5 potential tenants waiting for every available vacant property. The Office of National Statistics calculated in 2009 that the average income in Britain had achieved a level of £25,000 per annum, a figure that demonstrates that many workers in the UK fall within a threshold that excludes them from social housing and restricts their ability and, in some cases, their willingness to step onto the property ladder.
Social trends such as an increase in single person households and economic migrants are being compounded by successive Government’s policy in regard to new builds of social housing. The result of which, research forecasts, is a forthcoming decade of increased demand on the private rental sector. Economic necessity will encourage a seismic shift in the British attitude towards renting as opposed to the more traditional attitude of home-ownership. Good news for landlords and investors you might say. So where is the catch?
The growth in the private rental sector brings with it new opportunities but also pitfalls and problems. According to Legal 4 Landlords, one of the most damaging of these is fraud. The recent recession produced a 9% increase in fraud during 2009, with identity theft being a significant contributor to this figure. Landlords who may be tempted to ‘save’ a few pounds on the peace of mind provided by safe and reliable tenant referencing have found to their considerable cost the price of fraud.
Professional tenant referencing is a landlord’s first line of defence against identity fraud. Reputable letting companies will take care of this for a landlord or property investor, but those landlords who ‘go it alone’, can find themselves vulnerable to the devious and determined fraudsters. With current policy and economic conditions producing a squeeze on the social housing sector, desperate times can sometimes call for desperate measures. Many who have been reliant on social housing will inevitably migrate to the private rental sector. Independent landlords will therefore need to safe guard themselves against a migration of tenants from within this group who have committed fraud.
Fraudsters are constantly adapting there methods in order to find and exploit areas of weakness. In an ideal world they would walk around the streets with an eye mask, stripy jumper carrying a bag with swag written on the side, unfortunately they are not that easy to spot. Landlords though can help themselves by carrying out basic identity checks with potential tenants. Checking for photo ID such as passport and driving license and contacting any references provided. As we have pointed out though fraudsters are determined and devious so with an ever changing face of fraud it may be a job best left to the professionals.
Legal 4 Landlords provides an affordable, professional, safe and reliable tenants referencing service trusted by letting agents and clients across the UK. Visit there website or call them today for advice you can trust.