When wanting to rent a home, it’s unfortunately not as simple as just getting the keys to the home and then living there until you want to move. There is a series of checks that need to be taken for your and the landlord/letting agents’ benefit.
This is often coined as ‘tenant referencing,’ so today we’re going to run what letting agents check when referencing so you can make sure you’re in good standing and get the place you’ve been eyeing.
Let’s take a look at the detailed process you will go through in this article, so you don’t have to stress when it comes time to go through it!
In short, tenant referencing is a process that landlords or letting agents have to take to find out information about the tenant and their history. This is taken to make sure that they’re going to be a good tenant and not cause any issues during their stay in the rental property.
Through the referencing process that we’re going to discuss in a short while, letting agents or landlords will then know whether or not they have a potential tenant on their hands. The referencing checks are thorough, but also a great way to make sure everything runs smoothly and the tenant can be trusted.
Let’s face it, no one wants their neighbours to cause a fuss in their street or damage the property, so letting agents and landlords make sure that everything is under control.
So, when going through this entire procedure for your new rental property in your local area, you can be the one with the best chance of being offered keys to the home if you have all the following in order:
Before anything else, if you’re looking to rent in the UK, the landlords or letting agents are going to have to check that you are who you say you are. It’s a simple and easy process—you’ll just need to give:
If you were a landlord and a prospective tenant had unstable financial security to the point where you didn’t know if you were going to receive rent or not, you’d probably not want them as a tenant. Therefore, carrying out a credit check gives you a great idea of how financially responsible a person is. You’ll receive checks on your:
Letting agents and landlords will want to make sure you have a stable income and provide relevant details on your employment history to trust that you can make the rent payments on time. For this, you’ll need to:
Now this is similar to the credit check you’ll have to do, along with the previous income information. However, great letting agents will profile based on a stress test to ensure that the rent you’re set out to pay is actually affordable for the tenant.
We want to make sure you, as the tenant, are in the best financial position possible and not paying all of your salary towards housing. Housing is important, yes, but it’s not worth having no money elsewhere for anything else.
This was a law introduced in 2016 and essentially looks at whether or not you have a legal right to rent a property in the UK. If you’re not a British or Irish citizen, letting agents and landlords can ask for a Home Office right to rent check to make sure you’re eligible to rent the home you’re looking at. To make sure this isn’t a problem, just make sure you:
If you fail to provide any of this information, this could lead to the landlords or letting agents facing heavy penalties, meaning they’re going to always provide a thorough check.
Now this is not always the case, but character references could be required from someone who’s not in your immediate family but knows who you are. They’ll typically ask that person for information relating to your character, how reliable and honest you are, and generally how good of a person you are.
This way, a good letting agent and landlords can get a quick overview of what they can expect from you if you were to rent the home they’re offering.
Similar to the above reference check, your previous landlord will most likely be asked to give a reference to the letting agent or landlord of the home you want to move into. As you can imagine, if you’ve caused trouble in the past, you’re going to be less likely to be the tenant they choose.
Whereas, if you’ve always been respectful and never caused any harm, you can be confident in asking your previous landlord for this reference.
A guarantor is essentially someone who basically agrees to pay the debt or rent of someone living in a property and they can’t afford to pay it. This can be common for students or if you have financial instabilities. If a letting agent or landlord asks for this, the guarantor will have to:
In some way, if you’re not financially stable, then the guarantor has to be; otherwise, there is a case of unreliability on whether rent payments are going to be made by either of you.
Now, of course, all of this sounds like a lot of fuss, but for the most part, if you’re someone who is well-respected, trustworthy, and can pay rent on time reliably, you’re going to stand a great chance of passing this in a breeze.
If you think you’re ready to rent your next home and want to become a tenant with a great opportunity to find the perfect house for you, speak to our letting agency here at Peninsular Property.
We make sure everything is smooth sailing and you get what you deserve because, at the end of the day, you want the moving process to be as stress-free as possible. That’s what we are confident in doing for you every single time, tailored to your specific needs, so get in touch with our team today by either calling 0151 378 1074 or emailing us at info@peninsularproperty.net.
Joe is the founder of Peninsular Property and has worked in the industry since 2005. Joe has negotiated on over 9 million pounds worth of property purchases and managed over 1000 properties for clients all over the world. Joe is a landlord himself with a varied property portfolio so is ideally placed to advise clients on their property purchases and investments.
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