We hear a lot about rogue landlords in the press and on consumer awareness programmes, but there is also a lot to be said about rogue tenants, or to give them their more common name, ‘tenants from hell’.  The truth is that the tenant from hell can be anybody. That sweet little old lady wanting to rent so she’s close to her daughter?  She’s actually into loud jazz music and will refuse to turn it down.  That pleasant family with the two small children? They are always arguing loudly and they’ve been kicked out of many properties as a result.  Of course, as a landlord you need to protect your investment and your interests and the best way you can do this is through the many checks you have at your disposal.

We’ve provided you with a handy list of checks so that you attract the right tenants and avoid the bad.

1. Don’t Get Complacent

It’s essential that you treat the property rental business in the same way as any other business.  If rent is late or not paid it’s your business that suffers and if you’re paying a mortgage on the property that could mean you start falling behind with payments.  This is definitely a situation you don’t want to be in.  Prospective tenants are in effective strangers and you need to be sure they are going to look after your property and adhere to the rules of the tenancy agreement.

2. Produce a Comprehensive List

Make sure you’re clear with tenants what you need with regards to references and other information.  This will help to ease the process and avoid delays. At the very least, supplying a list will stop timewasters in their tracks.  Nobody is going to go through so many checks if they aren’t serious about your property.

3. Obtain Some ID

Photographic ID such as a passport or visa ensures your tenants are who they say they are.  Take photocopies and keep them on file.

4. Obtain an Employer’s Reference

This is one of the most important checks of all.  Anybody can forge a payslip, but it’s harder if you follow that up with a phone call to an employer.  You can also ask for a reference on headed paper and check that the company is legitimate.

5. A Reference from a Previous Landlord

A reference from a previous landlord is the holy grail of all reference checks and will give you lots of information about their previous tenants.  This is where we come in, remember you can search with us for free to check prospective tenants history, but it still helps to do everything possible, follow up any reference with a phone call to check it’s genuine, but you should also bear in mind that the landlord might have written a glowing reference in order to get shot of problem tenants.  For peace of mind, you can check out the landlord previous to last to see if the facts are being fudged in any way.

6. Bank Statements

Payslips and bank statements are a great way of checking out financial status.  You should ask to see at least 3 months’ worth of statements and take photocopies.

7. Credit Checks

You’ll need to obtain your tenant’s permission to carry out a credit check and it will cost you in the region of £10, but credit checks do hold a lot of water when it comes to vetting tenants.

8. Letting Agent Checks

If you are using the services for a letting agent, they might also want to use a separate company to conduct these checks.  Most agents are very careful and will only agree to let out a property once all checks are satisfactory.

9. Sixth Sense

Natural instinct should never be ignored.  If you have a feeling that something doesn’t add up then there’s probably a good reason for that.  To set your mind at rest, why not use a tenant database to check out prospective tenants.  These databases hold a lot of tenant reports written by landlords for landlords and you could save yourself a lot of time and effort in the process.

10. When Things Go Wrong

It stands to reason that if you rent out a lot of properties there are going to be occasions where you experience a bad tenant along the way.  However, conducting the checks above and knowing your rights will ensure you have the knowledge and resources at your disposal to avoid loss of earnings or damage to your property.

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