New rent reporting system that links tenants’ rental payments with their credit report

New rent reporting system that links tenants’ rental payments with their credit report

9:21 AM, 17th January 2018, About 7 years ago 17

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A new proptech platform has launched today that links tenants’ rental payments with their Experian credit report and provides a full rent reporting service for letting agents and landlords.

The Credit Builder platform is designed to help tenants improve their credit history by building up a validated rental record which they can share with future landlords and financial institutions, such as mortgage providers and other lenders.

Furthermore, by encouraging tenants to pay their rent on time Credit Builder helps to reduce rental arrears for agents and landlords, while also generating mortgage enquires from tenants that are ready to buy.

The new Credit Builder software is fully integrated with Experian’s Rental Exchange and provides agents with the ability to run a comprehensive rent reporting service for all of their tenancies.

The launch of Credit Builder follows a petition which gathered around 150,000 signatures calling for rental payments to be taken into consideration when deciding if someone can afford a mortgage.

With Credit Builder tenants will consent to the use of the rent reporting service as a condition of their tenancy agreement. Their details will then be imported into the Credit Builder platform and each subsequent rental payment they make will be automatically reconciled and reported to Experian.

Tenants wanting to review their rental record and connect with Experian to check their credit report will be able to do so via the Credit Builder app, which will also provide access to savings and loan offers.

One Nottingham-based estate agent, Walton and Allen, has already signed-up to Credit Builder and has no rental arrears among those tenants using the service compared to an average of 7% for all tenants.

Our own recommended Letting Agents, who only charge a 5% fee for full letting and management, also agreed to sign up for this service today.

Henry Yates, founder and CEO of Credit Builder, says: “The groundswell of opinion that tenants’ rental payments should count towards their credit report is beginning to drive real change in the industry. Many renters are understandably keen for this to happen as they view it as good opportunity to enhance their credit score and improve their chances of being approved for a mortgage. With this in mind agents should consider offering a rent reporting service as this is likely to become an important consideration for new and existing tenants, as well as landlords.

“Credit Builder is a truly innovative platform that will ensure that Lord John Bird’s vision for a fairer rental market becomes a reality. The system will benefit millions of renters in the UK while also providing a valuable proposition for agents by enhancing the service they provide to tenants and landlords.”

Mark Batty, director of Walton and Allen estate agents, says: “Credit Builder provides much needed support for tenants that want to bridge the gap between renting and owning their own home. Credit Builder helps renters to enhance their credit score and to demonstrate to lenders their eligibility for a mortgage. The benefit to landlords is proven by the fact that all of our tenants using the Credit Builder platform have paid their rent on time and we no longer spend time chasing late payers. Both our tenants and landlords love the fact that we offer the service and it has provided a real differentiator for us among our competitors.”


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Martin Roberts

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9:36 AM, 17th January 2018, About 7 years ago

Sounds like win/win. Brilliant.

Question Everything

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10:31 AM, 17th January 2018, About 7 years ago

Amazing! Hooray!!
I love the way it has been written to "support" those good payers. Not even the slightest mention of the value of it being a help for landlords to vet those who are late and non-paying.
To be honest, I can't see under the current system how it will help those looking to get a mortgage that much. If you have no other credit history other than a phone bill and credit card etc you will still be on higher rates regardless wether you have been on time with your rents.
Extra revenue for Experian, better policing for our rents, and the Gov gets to paint it as a 'helpful' thing. Win win win really.

Rob Thomas

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11:44 AM, 17th January 2018, About 7 years ago

As a landlord this is an idea I'd like to know more about. But the above text doesn't answer the question of who pays. Presumably in future landlords/agents will have to pay to see past tenant credit histories (which might be worth it given the detailed information they would receive) but it will be some time before there is a meaningful database of past payments.
In the meantime who pays, the tenant or the landlord or is the service free to both?
Presumably, this service also requires the landlord to sign up to Experian having automated access to their bank account via open banking. I don't have a problem with that but some landlords might.
But I agree with Adam Withford that there seems to be more in this for the tenant (those that keep paying their rent) than the landlord. If this does help improve the credit score of tenants who want to buy, it can only accelerate the time when your best tenants leave. But for tenants that end up short of money and paying late, it could do great damage to their credit rating, so it's a doubled edged sword for tenants.
One last point. I wouldn't pay too much attention to the improvement in payment rates mentioned by Walton and Allen. Presumably they've been running a pilot scheme but as this service is only available to tenants who have signed up for it, it can't have a very long run of data, so you can't make a like-for-like comparison with general rent arrears. Furthermore, those tenants who select this service are going to be the ones who will try hardest to keep up their payments (so it's not a representative sample of all tenants).
In theory a landlord could use this service as a tool to select out tenants who aren't serious about keeping up their rental payments by insisting on it as a condition of taking up the tenancy. But for landlords like me who have many foreign tenants who don't plan to stay in the UK, that wouldn't be practical.

Ed Tuff

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16:31 PM, 17th January 2018, About 7 years ago

Anything that further discourages tenants in making late rent payments has got to be good.

The article mentions agents, but as a landlord who doesn't use an agent, how can I get on board?

disgruntled landlord

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17:38 PM, 17th January 2018, About 7 years ago

Non payment of rent/destroying a rental property should be made a criminal offence.....

michaelwgroves

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19:52 PM, 17th January 2018, About 7 years ago

Looks great, but I can't find it to be able to use it?

Henry Yates

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10:30 AM, 18th January 2018, About 7 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Ed Tuff at 17/01/2018 - 16:31
Happy to give you more information about http://www.creditbuilder.co - please feel free to email me henry@creditbuilder.co

Henry Yates

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10:32 AM, 18th January 2018, About 7 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Rob Thomas at 17/01/2018 - 11:44
As you will be carrying out ID checks Experian are happy to create a new record for overseas tenants

Henry Yates

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10:32 AM, 18th January 2018, About 7 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Michael Groves at 17/01/2018 - 19:52
Happy to give you more information about http://www.creditbuilder.co - please feel free to email me henry@creditbuilder.co

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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10:34 AM, 18th January 2018, About 7 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Henry Yates at 18/01/2018 - 10:30
Hi Henry

I'm not sure whether Chris Sheldon, MD of LettingSupermarket.com spoke to you personally a few minutes ago, but I confirm that he will be signing up for this service, which is long overdue.

Property118 Limited owns a significant shareholding in LettingSupermarket.com. If you think there are some PR angles we could jointly work on for mutual benefit please let me know - mark@property118.com

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