Giving a Tenant a Reference

Hi Dean

In my opinion the letting agency concerned are bang out of order and should be reported to the ICO and the local Trading Standards Office. I'd also suggest you cc your letters of complaint to the agent and any professional bodies they belong to.

Given that you have answered totally honestly I can't see that your tenant has any legal comeback on you. They might become bloody awkward though and that's just not right or fair on you.

Maybe you should send a full copy of the reference to your tenant to prove absolutely that you are an open book.

What did your tenant pay the agency £400 for by the way? The cynic in me is thinking they might be ripping off hundreds of tenants with this scam!
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PS - why not become your tenants champion and help them to make complaints too?

You could show them your complaint letters and my comment above.

If the agency is pulling a fast one they need to be dealt with. They might just give your tenant his/her money back just for some peace. If not, I'm sure that both you and your tenant will have great joy in exposing their little scam.

You and your tenant may also wish to consider posting a review on the All-Agents website - see http://www.allagents.co.uk/
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Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "13/03/2014 - 11:01":

Thanks Mark

I asked them to refund the £400 yesterday and they agreed but I do not know yet if this has happened.

They promised to send me details of how to complain which they have and call me back yesterday afternoon when they had looked into it further . They have not done this yet despite another email reminding them. I intend to give them until this afternoon then I will call again. But I am definitely writing a full complaint to them and any governing body . I think they mentioned ARLA ? I will contact Trading Standards I had not thought of them. I thought maybe Data protection Office ? Who is ICO please?

Thanks

Dean

Reply to the comment left by "Dean " at "13/03/2014 - 11:10":

Hi Dean

The ICO is the Information Commissioners Office, the government backed department which is empowered to enforce the Data Protection Act.

I would suggest you write your complaint to Trading Standards and the ICO and cc to the professional bodies.
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Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "13/03/2014 - 11:23":

Thanks Mark I will

Dean

An interesting story and as often on P118 we only have one side of the story. I am not suggesting anything.
I am frequently asked for tenant references and I am very upfront with what I am likely to say. Usually the tenant expects me to write them a letter which they can pass on. I point out that is not how it works. First the person seeking the reference will want to check me out - whether I exist and whether I am a landlord and of what property - and that can be done quite easily - in Scotland. Then of course they will want to ask specific questions. Subjective questions are rarely asked. Whatever I say, irrespective of confidentiality, I make sure I can substantiate. Otherwise there could be 'damages'.

And yes there have been occasions when I have said do you really want a reference from me?

Frankly I do not use credit referencing or any other agency any more. My own checks suffice (and I am not going to provide the details here). Suffice it to say that very simple checks & meeting people often rule out unsuitable tenants. Luckily I can often choose between several tenants on the same viewing day, so it is not a problem. Yes there have been mistakes but nothing serious.

Bottom line, don't provide any information that you would not do in a court of law. And when you ask for a reference bear in mind the previous sentence.
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Reply to the comment left by "Mike W" at "13/03/2014 - 12:13":

I do not use reference agencies either I do very much the same as you .

The reference I have given is very honest. That's the problem. The things I did say in there are specific to a couple of problems we have had with this tenant. as a result she knows that I have mentioned them. However, it is the context I mentioned them in she does not know. Put out of context it could be taken very differently.

I know if I were the reader of that reference I would not have turned her down on that basis. If I had a better potential tenant I would. However, she will not be happy that I have even eluded to them. That will result in a unhappy leaving tenant. Who knows what potential damage or problems that will lead to.

I have absolutely no problem if someone wanted to take me to court over these answers either. All are honest and all can be backed up by correspondence and third party evidence, including a third party from the local council who is this persons support worker and has had dealings with her over some of these issues.

I appreciate that although there is only one side on here of the story it is a truthful side and one I am prepared to take to any official body

Hi Dean.

I had a very similar case to this. We had to decline a tenant based on not only their landlord reference, but some other issues that were also concerning the new landlord, not least their credit history. They demanded the transcript from our referencing agency, which under data protection and freedom of information they had to provide. They then took the issue up with the agent who had provided the reference. The agent had said that they would relet, but in view of the culmination of evidence in the reference report (and their general nervousness about the tenant) the landlord still declined them. As Mark says, perhaps it is worth you providing the tenant with all of the information you provided. You have a duty to be honest in your reference, and they can't object to the facts that you noted.

From what you have said, it does seem that the agency are using a few things you have mentioned as the basis of their decline, but it is likely that there were various other factors at play.

Reply to the comment left by "Eleanor White" at "13/03/2014 - 12:35":

Yes I appreciate that . I would have no objection to my tenant seeing the reference in its entirety.

However, having read your comment I think I may now start to decline all reference requests unless I can honestly say that there are no issues at all. Even if I do that what happens if the next landlord does have problems . Is someone likely to come back to me ? I doubt that would ever be the case , but it seems to be reason enough just to refuse giving them at all. Which is wrong because I really so much on landlord references.

this has left a bad taste Im afraid .

Hi Dean,

I was just asked to provide a reference yesterday and I hesitated saying that the tenant played the drums and practiced during the day, because overall he is a good tenant. In he end I decided not to mention it.

I was worried that, if I did mention this, and he somehow found out, he could be angry at me for thwarting his chances to get a new property!

A reference is a double edged sword. If you have a great tenant that you do not want to leave you, you could write a bad reference to scupper their chances of being accepted in a new property.

Equally, if you know the tenant is bad, but want them to leave, you might write a more glowing reference than they deserve, just to get shot of them!!

In this case, the referencing agency are bang out of order, and Mark has given you some good advice.

If the £400 fee gets refunded, then no real harm done, although your relationship with the outgoing tenant might have been compromised.