Is a tenancy voidable as fraud if tenant lies on application?

Reply to the comment left by "Luke P" at "13/07/2015 - 12:36":

This has just happened to me, the tenant gave false references and fake payslips to the credit company and they still passed him with medium risk level. The problems started immediately with late payment on the first month followed with no payments.
I was advised to wait until he is 2 month in arrears then follow the mandatory route of section 8.
My agent advised we could have a quick hearing date if we only apply for rent arrears,This was confirmed by another solicitor who attends our local CC weekly.
It then transpired that he sublet the flat to a young mother and her daughter on the date we informed him that we applied for an eviction hearing.
It has now become a criminal case as to what he did to this young mother, whom he took her deposit and has now disappeared and gone to ground.

My gut instincts was to go around and shove his fraudulent paperwork into his face and physically evict him myself
I spoke to various specialist lawyers and I was told that a tenant will not automatically get evicted for lying on his application had he paid the rent.. So the answer is the contract is not void until you get an order and the bailiffs in.

The best advice is meet the prospective tenants yourself and double check as much as you can on the details they give the credit companies. Fraudsters are there to con you and others.

It would be great if we could name and shame these person and put photos of them on the internet for others to view

Reply to the comment left by "Joan Deal" at "13/07/2015 - 12:06":

Interesting to know how did police deal with your ex-tenants ? sentence them prison?

Reply to the comment left by "Antony Antoniou" at "13/07/2015 - 20:42":

It would be great if we could name and shame these person and put photos of them on the internet for others to view, I agree with you totally. then these bad tenants will find harder and harder to find somewhere to live !

Reply to the comment left by "Joan Deal" at "13/07/2015 - 18:49":

You can' trust letting agent ,can you, they are only interested their money.

Reply to the comment left by "wanda wang" at "13/07/2015 - 21:46":

The tenant has been charged but not been to court yet. That will take time and sentence will be decided by the court. I had already obtained a possession order from the civil court and he has left the property but not yet paid the arrears he owes.

Reply to the comment left by "Joan Deal" at "13/07/2015 - 22:03":

My ex - tenants would rather have CCJ against them than pay what their owes, I have tried the County court bailiff, waste money and HCEO, haven't got penny back. If he has a job, go straight to his earning.

Reply to the comment left by "Antony Antoniou" at "13/07/2015 - 20:42":

You can put a tenant alert on the website of Landlord Referencing Co UK once you have registered. They have a tenant alert directory, I'm not sure that many letting agents use it but if you manage your own lettings it would be worth checking.

Hello all,

I have evicted tenants via courts, bailiffs and CCJs previously and certainly attached bad credit reports to their names.

The tenants in question have left my property and gone to letting agents and gained access to another house, this they have done by supplying false details to the agent. If that is not bad enough on its own, the letting agents failed to do full checks and contact me as their previous landlord, the house is registered via land registry to myself and my current address, it costs a couple of pounds to check this out.

Letting agents have excepted the details given by the previous tenants without question and checking if they are correct, i am guessing to get the tenants into a property and all paid up as quick as possible.

It surprises me with the facilities with have to check previous tenants out agents fail to do so, after all they are paid well to do so and failing their clients is a very poor service.

I never use agents, partially for this reason alone, i can not guarantee tenants will not fall behind with their rent once in a property, as happened with the ones i had to evict, but i do go to every length to check them out before hand.

I would be interested to hear from other landlords the routes they go via to check their tenants out also, i am always on the look out to find new ways to prove someone true identity.

Thanks

Andy

Watch out for references from unfamiliar letting agents using gmail addresses and ring employers to verify written references using the main switchboard number rather than number supplied by prospective tenant. Simples really. If this had been done in my case I wouldn't be in the situation I'm in now.

Reply to the comment left by "Joan Deal" at "14/07/2015 - 15:17":

Hi Joan,

Good points, i dont like using G Mail to correspond with someone and i know the more reliable letting agents in my area, i would not touch one without proper contact details.

I normally get the name and address of employers for ref and then google them and contact them direct myself, i also use social media to check possible tenants out also, some of the things they put on there is great ammunition not to take them on.

Its all a learning curve as bad tenants get more crafty with ways to get you to take them on, i would sooner have a house empty for a month than have bad tenants in there.

Andy