A Tenant Guide to Referencing
Reference checks are an important step for your landlord or agent to ensure that you are a suitable tenant for their property. We know that referencing can be a stressful time for tenants, so we have put together some tips to help you make sure the process goes as smoothly and as quickly as possible.
With these 6 tips, we will look at some of the things you will need to do if you want to pass a tenant background search with minimal issues.
- Check your affordability
- The first step when looking to rent a property is to work out what you can afford to spend on rent each month. The affordability check ensures that your income will sufficiently cover the rent payments. To pass the affordability check, your gross combined annual household income must be more than 30 times the monthly rental amount.
- For example, to rent a property at £1,000 per month, your household income must be at least £30,000 per year. If you are concerned that your income will not meet the affordability criteria, speak to your letting agent, it may be possible to support your application with a UK based guarantor.
- Be Transparent
- Things such as bad prior experiences with past landlords which may lead to poor references or a sketchy credit rating are the type of things letting agents will be interested in.
- Rather than let your letting agent or unearth some bad news about you, it is always better to be proactive and inform them of anything you feel they may need to know about.
- Organise your paperwork
- Having these ready to produce immediately will cut down the time you will have to wait considerably and could mean the difference between you getting the tenancy or not.
- You will need will include copies of references for renting (both employer and previous/current landlords), bank statements, and passport and visa where necessary
- Pre-warn your referees
- All good tenant referencing checks will include at least one call to your employer and/or previous landlord.
- It is always a good idea to contact your referees in advance so they know that their input will be required and an alternative can be arranged if they are not available. Waiting for a response from referees can cause some of the biggest delays with reference checks.
- Have a guarantor
- If you are unsure if you will pass reference checks on your own, it is best to find a guarantor in advance, so as not to delay the referencing process. They must be willing to agree to take on the responsibility for paying your rent, or for damage to the property, should you fail to do so.
- Your guarantor will be referenced in the same way as you, so will be required to undergo a credit check and provide an employment reference. Let your guarantor know in advance so they can have the required information ready.
- Have your finances in order
- Credit checks will have already been done by yourself prior to embarking on the tenant referencing process, but on order to ensure a smooth transition moving into your rental of choice, make sure you have all the necessary deposits and rent in advance ready to pay at a moment’s notice.
- Failing to have it ready will add unnecessary delays to the process.
If you follow your 6 steps, this will ensure your referencing process will be a smooth, stress-free process.
Smart Properties offers Full Check Referencing Services which is suitable for tenants and UK guarantors and ensures that all the necessary information is obtained to make an informed decision.
Each Full Check includes:
- Written verification of employment/income
- Reference from current landlord or letting agent
- Affordability calculation
- County Court Judgment (CCJ) Search
- Bankruptcy & Insolvency Data
- Residency & Address Confirmation
- Alias Name Search
- Linked Addresses located and searched
- ID Verification Checks
£55.00 Flat Fee
