Best Tenant Vetting Services and Alternatives

Best Tenant Vetting Services and Alternatives

11:59 AM, 1st October 2014, About 10 years ago 3

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I’m looking for a reliable tenant vetting service. Best Tenant Vetting Services and Alternatives

  • Do you use these services to verify your tenants?
  • What are the best services available?
  • What is your experience with these services?
  • What are the alternative tenant verification processes (bad tenant registers; guarantors; rent in advance?

Thanks for your advice!

Helen


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Comments

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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12:08 PM, 1st October 2014, About 10 years ago

Hi Helen

I am a massive advocate of thorough tenant referencing and a certain element of this can be outsourced relatively inexpensively these days - £10 - £30 depending on level of service and provider.

The acid test for me is whether the referencing company are prepared to put their money where their mouths are in terms of offering a meaningful rent guarantee insurance policy on the back of their recommendations. RGI policies are priced at around £100 per annum.

The main providers are FCC Paragon, DAS and Homelet. They do "white label" their products so it seems like there are thousands of other but there are not.

I particularly rate Let Alliance (a white label version of the DAS products) and FCC Paragon.

I don't rely entire on this form of referencing though. I also like to see where the tenant is living now and to take a look at their last 6 months bank statements. Some people consider that to be an invasion of privacy but I know that if I've marketed my property properly I will have the pick of tenants and those who don't like my way of doing things don't have to rent from me. I'd rather be safe than sorry and I'd certainly prefer a few weeks void period to a bad tenant - but I rarely have either problem 🙂

I hope that helps
.

Rob Crawford

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16:24 PM, 1st October 2014, About 10 years ago

Hi Helen, I use Landlord Secure. They have an easy on-line process and two levels of checking, they also do Rent Guarantee Insurance and various others. Tenant ID and Landlord Referencing maintain registers for landlords to register good and bad tenants.

I would agree with Mark that you need to take that extra step. I photo copy and scrutinise passport, payslip and last 3 months bank statements. I also get the candidate tenant to submit proof of affordability (outgoing against income).

Industry Observer

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8:31 AM, 6th October 2014, About 10 years ago

Fraser Lewis Scott based in Kent provided (and still do) referencing services for a large company I used to work for. Over 20 years I have only ever known there be one problem and that turned out to be a con merchant who would have fooled any company.

The big advantage of FLS is that they will discuss references with you and what they are concerned about.

More to the point they will also ring the applicant and discuss with them if the problem is something on the credit searches that the applicant claims to know nothing about (as they always do).

Brilliant company very reasonable fees full profile £16 per applicant, first guarantor reference free if submitted alongside tenant application. See http://www.tenantref.co.uk where you can also track applications online.

The idea of visiting the applicant in their current home I find odd, especially if they do not live locally. I have only ever done this once and that was because they asked me to and complete the forms with them for a letting to their mother who was moving into the next road where my property happened to be.

If any agent told me as part of their referencing process that they wanted to 'inspect' my current property they wouldn't then need to tell me I had to rent from someone else I'd already be doing so. The very idea!!!

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