Experian back-track on linking shared tenants

Experian back-track on linking shared tenants

11:19 AM, 29th March 2012, About 13 years ago

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Renters who flatshare won’t be affected by their housemates who fail to pay their rent and bills following complaints from tenants to Experian.

After announcing the plans for a rent payment profile for tenants, those on shared tenancy agreements were going to be linked, impacting each other’s credit score.

Flatshare website Flatmaterooms.co.uk, has seen a rise in worried tenants posting on their site, according to director Gareth: “We had concerned members with questions like ‘should I move out if my flatmate owes rent & bills?’ and ‘my flatmate has pay day loans which he hasn’t paid, will that affect me?’.”

James Jones, Experian Spokesman explained the plans weren’t the finished article yet, and welcomed the feedback: “One advantage of making a very early announcement is to listen to people’s views and take these into consideration.

“It is now clear this [credit linking of renters] would be inappropriate in many cases, due to the nature of many joint tenancy arrangements. As a result, it is not now our intention to create financial links on credit reports from rental data.”

Martin Lewis from influential money saving website Moneysavingexpert.co.uk agreed that it was the right decision.

“Financially linking renters would’ve been a very poor decision. Often flatmates move in with people they’ve never met before, to have their entire credit worthiness impacted by the other person simply wouldn’t work.”


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