Legal 4 Landlords calls for reference regulation

It’s been reported the strict criteria of some tenant referencing companies is squeezing some tenants out of the rental market as they struggle to meet income and deposit requirements.

Here at Legal 4 Landlords we’re calling for stronger regulation of tenant referencing. This protects both the landlord and the tenants and helps avoid evictions further down the line.

There are so many tenants up for each property that landlords don’t need to take a chance on potentially bad tenants. This means they should always have a full reference check carried out.

At the moment, there are no rules about what criteria agents and landlords should use to carry out tenant checks. Everyone uses their own and whilst some may use strict criteria, others aren’t thorough enough. A nationwide poll this year found 18 percent of landlords never trust a tenant when making a financial transaction, showing they are not confident in financial checks.

Sim Sekhon, director at Legal 4 Landlords says:

“Some landlords and agents carry out thorough research on potential tenants whereas others trustingly hand over a set of keys after a quick show-around. Landlords are putting themselves at risk of all sorts of problems. They should always take on a professional business to carry out tenant checks and ask what criteria they will use.”

“When we have to carry out evictions services, we often find references haven’t been carried out correctly.”

Legal 4 Landlords has seen a 600 per cent growth in the tenant referencing area of its business. Sim says it’s good to see that more landlords are taking references seriously and tenant referencing has become one of the most popular landlord services. We also work with lettings agents across the country, providing references.

As a minimum, credit checks, check of address, visual proof of identity, employment references, bank statements and former landlord references should be taken.