Tenant Reference Update
Do you need a tenant reference? Your investment property is going to be incredibly valuable to you. There’ll likely be a lot of money tied up in there, so you need to take things seriously. Especially when it comes to finding tenants to move in which is why tenant referencing is so important.
Needless to say, you don’t want any random person to just move in and make themselves comfortable. What if they’re a bad tenant who never pays their rent on time? Or, they continuously make a mess in your property, potentially damaging different things? Either way, there are some people out there who you don’t want anywhere near your property.
Equally, there are plenty of great tenants who’ll be absolutely perfect and never cause any trouble. The key to filtering out the good from the bad is thorough tenant referencing.
Trace anyone to a current address
What is a tenant reference?
The simple definition is that a tenant check is the most critical aspect of finding new tenants. It refers to how you check the background of any potential tenants, verifying that all their information is accurate. It’s not uncommon for someone to respond to an advert for a lease and provide you with loads of incorrect info on themselves just so you agree to the contract with them.
The whole process of tenant referencing involves going through all the pieces of information you’ve been given and seeing if they all add up. For example, you’ll need to verify if their current address is accurate, if their personal details are correct, if their occupation is current, details of any CCJ’s – and so on.
As you can imagine, doing all of this could take a lot of time out of your schedule. Therefore, loads of landlords decide to skip it altogether. They think it’s not worth their time, and they’ll just gamble based on their first impressions of the tenant.
However, with a quality tenant verification service, you can eliminate all of these struggles. At Find UK People, you can get a detailed tenant reference that explains everything you need to know about your tenants.
You’ll get as much background information as possible, so you can be 100% certain that their information is accurate, and that they’re not lying to you. The best part is; you don’t have to do any of the hard work as it’s handled for you, and you get results within 24 hours.
Why is tenant referencing so important?
If there’s one thing all landlords should take away from this post, it’s that tenant screening is not something you should avoid. The following points do an excellent job of explaining the benefits of a tenant verify check: There are also some good tips available on right to rent checks here
Find out who your tenants really are
First and foremost, a tenant reference lets you discover who your potential tenants really are. It may shock you how many people in the UK will flat out lie about their personal details or occupation, just to get accepted by landlords. With this speedy process, you put any doubts to bed and have full confidence that this person is exactly who they say they are and can be trusted.
Save money in the long-term
The main worry people have about tenant referencing is that it’s just a waste of money. Why pay to do a background check when the majority of tenants aren’t going to lie? Well, what happens if someone does provide you with misinformation? What if they lie about their credit score or claim they have a better job than they actually do?
The result is a tenant who struggles to pay rent, which means you’re always trying to chase them up. Your source of rental income stagnates because they fall a few months behind, and it gets to the point where you want to kick them out.
But, the act of kicking out a tenant isn’t free. It can cost hundreds of pounds to take them to court and legally evict them. All of this could be avoided if you paid for a tenant verification service and got the reference. They cost around £30, so it’s actually a brilliant investment that could save hundreds.
Potentially earn more money
As well as saving money, landlords could bring in more money too. It all comes down to finding the best tenants around. If you use tenant referencing, you end up with people who you can trust. What’s more, they’re capable of keeping up with rent, meaning they’re more likely to stay in your property for longer spells.
Consequently, you don’t have to deal with instances where you might have to evict bad tenants because you didn’t get a detailed reference. This results in you needing to find a new tenant, which effectively means your property is empty and not generating any cash. When you take the time to verify potential tenants before you agree to a lease, it means you get ones that keep your property occupied for longer, ensuring your cash continues to flow.
Less effort for landlords
Along with the financial benefits, there are personal benefits as well. Tenant verification is essential as it means you spend less time having to manage your property. Again, it all comes back to this idea of hiring good tenants instead of bad tenants. Skip the referencing stage, and you end up with a tenant who causes all sorts of trouble.
They might be making too much noise, meaning other people in the building complain to the property manager, who passes on their concerns to you. Or, they might take terrible care of your property, meaning you have to keep checking up on them and carrying out inspections.
On the other hand, if you go through with tenant referencing, then there’s less chance of these issues being a problem. Throughout the check, you can find out information from previous landlords that shows if they’re a hassle to deal with or not. It gives you confidence that they’ll just get along with their life and cause no issues. So, managing your property becomes a much more relaxed ordeal.
In essence, the simple way to describe why tenant referencing is so vital is that it saves you a lot of time and money. Not only that, but you get the confidence of understanding who is going to live on your property. It stops you from potentially agreeing to a contract with someone who has multiple CCJ’s and has spent numerous stints in prison.
It prevents you from getting a tenant with almost no source of income who just squats in your property and refuses to pay rent. You avoid so much stress when you just go through the process of tenant verification.
Summary: It’s crucial to complete tenant checking before a let is agreed
If you own an investment property and are looking for your first tenants, then it’s essential to complete tenant referencing before any let is agreed. Don’t do it after, as it will be too late by then.
Once the contract is signed, it’s much harder to evict a tenant – particularly if they haven’t breached the tenancy agreement. Get it done before, so you can legally reject their application and avoid all the possible struggles that could come in the future.
As we said earlier, a tenant verification service is the best way to handle things. It only costs around £30 to get the full reference check, and you see the results within 24 hours. Think about it this way, there are reports of landlords having to pay nearly £2000 in court eviction fees to get rid of tenants who aren’t paying rent.
A lot of these instances stem from the landlord not verifying the tenant before the contract was agreed. You can prevent this from ever becoming a problem by using a fast and affordable tenant verification service.
