Tenant Checks – which report option to choose?

August 18th, 2009 by admin Leave a reply »

The most popular report option purchased is the gold tenant check, this level of report provides a good balance of information that is of benefit to both landlords and letting agents.  All of our tenant check reports can be used to provide checks against guarantors or tenants.

Below we have also summarised what is included within each of our tenant checks to help decide on the most suitable report option for a given situation.

The bronze tenant check

This report provides a summary of any CCJs, Court Decrees, Bankruptcy, or Insolvency against an applicant. Our searches will include a linked address search, this is very important if a tenant has only been at their current address for a short period (which is normal for tenants), you can read more here on the linked address search.

The report has been designed for landlords and letting agents who already have a comprehensive referencing system and only need to check for court orders against the applicant. Alternatively this report is used for a joint tenant who may not be the main income source with respect to a tenancy agreement.

The silver tenant check

This report meets the minimum requirements to satisfy rental guarantee insurance where a tenant is required to have no CCJs / Bankruptcy / Insolvency, at least one address verification, and a risk rating better than 200 (high risk on our scale)

The report provides a summary of any CCJs, Court Decrees, Bankruptcy, or Insolvency against an applicant.

A check against the public electoral register for the current occupant registered at an address.

Identification of any related addresses we find.

A tenant risk evaluation score along with a risk scale indicating the probability of default on rental payments.

It should be noted that tenants are sometimes not recorded in the public electoral register, either because they have opted out of having their records published, or because they did not register.  To help combat this we provide additional verifications with our gold tenant check.

The gold tenant check

This is our most popular as it provides a good base range of information suited to rental guarantee insurance and sufficient address verification checks for an applicant should they subsequently need to be pursued for non payment of rent.

The report provides a summary of any CCJs, Court Decrees, Bankruptcy, or Insolvency against an applicant.

A check against the public electoral register for the current occupant registered at an address.

Identification of any related addresses we find.

A tenant risk evaluation score along with a risk scale indicating the probability of default on rental payments.

An additional check against Insight to provide further verification of the current address and also to list any financial accounts linked to the applicant’s current address.

A key benefit of the Insight check is the detail on accounts linking an applicant to an address. Whilst it is normal to have up to 5 or so financial accounts, a high level of account activity, e.g. 15 to 20 accounts, indicates that the applicant may be under financial stress.

The platinum tenant check

This report is most suited to a landlord that is new to letting, or where extra checks need to be taken against an applicant to provide a higher level of assurance.

In addition to the gold tenant check this report provides

Checks against Insight and Electoral Register for both current and previous addresses provided by the applicant.

Verification of employer name with telephone number provided.  We have found cases where applicants provide telephone numbers of friends to pass off as their employer.

Verbal referencing with the existing landlord or letting agent to provide feedback on whether there were any rental arrears or unsatisfactory behaviour.

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