Letting Agent Credit Check – Fulham

In Fulham, as in many other parts of London, renting accommodation is becoming a far more realistic option to some people than buying. With the rise in the numbers of rental properties available – and subsequently more competition in the rental market – it is vital for Fulham letting agents to obtain credit checks that will give them as accurate a picture as possible about prospective tenants.

Tenant referencing company Diligent Services work solely for letting agents. After 20 years’ experience in this field we have in-depth experience in understanding of the needs of letting agents, as well as landlords and tenants. This article looks at the property market in Fulham and why there is such a high demand for rental properties in the area.

Property in Fulham – What Rising Prices Mean to Landlords

Fulham is close to Chelsea, which is famed for being a particularly upmarket part of London. Among the draws for those seeking accommodation here is the area’s excellent restaurants, thriving nightlife, and the village atmosphere despite its relatively close proximity to the city of London. It’s also just a short walk to the river. As such a prestigious place to live, this has had a knock on effect on property prices, which are continuing their trend upwards. Average house prices in Fulham this year (2015) are now above the one million mark, while apartment prices are also making a significant leap upwards.

For those with buy-to-let properties this is excellent news. House prices in this part of London rose 6 per cent in the first nine months of the year. However, the prices of flats took an even bigger jump – a massive 21 per cent from the start of the year – so buyers can now expect to pay an average of £850,000 for an apartment. This is partly due to the increase of prestigious flats being built in the vicinity, such as in Lille Square, a high profile development on Seagrove Road, Earls Court, and the upmarket dockside development Chelsea Creek, near Chelsea Harbour.

Such high value homes make it even more pressing for landlords to protect their investment. Letting agents need to carry out thorough reference checks to keep bad tenants off their books and ensure landlords are content in order to maintain their reputation as providing their best possible service for landlords, and ultimately the tenants too. Fortunately, Diligent Services has a long standing reputation in London for high standards. If requested, along with our standard tenant reference checks our letting agent credit check service can also encompass checking and reviewing applicants from abroad, as well as overseas guarantors.

The Fulham Rental Market

Home.co.uk’s most up-to-date statistics for 2015 show that there are a total of 4,000 rental properties in Fulham, of which there are approximately 600 available to let at any one time. Property rental prices average at £2,700 a month, ranging from rooms to let at £1,000, through to £8,000 for a five bedroom home. So it just goes to show the right tenant can provide landlords – and subsequently their letting agents – with a steady income.

Unfortunately, even in an upmarket area there are horror stories about bad tenants. In 2014, The Guardian reported on a landlord in Fulham who endured a ‘year of hell’ after she let her three-bedroom property to a tenant who gave her one month’s rent and a deposit, then demanded a long list of repairs before he would pay rent. As well as clocking up a £20,000 bill in unpaid rent, he caused considerable stress to the landlord. And there are many similar cases just like this one.

However, for those who have a buy-to-let, it is not all doom and gloom. As the statistics above show, if you get the right tenant (and most tenants do fall into this bracket), the rental market in Fulham – as well as other parts of London – can be a very worthwhile investment. To minimise the risk, the first step for landlords is to choose a letting agent that uses a high quality reference service such as Diligent.

Letting Agencies

As a letting agency, the only way to get the right tenants on behalf of the landlords is to rely on thorough reference checks. Diligent has an excellent reputation for providing letting agent credit checks to rental agencies in the Fulham area, as well as elsewhere in the UK. All applications receive the personal touch, and we jointly assess applications if there is more than one tenant. We also provide easy to read reports that agencies can post or email to their landlords.

Letting Agent Credit Check Fulham – Click on the link to find out more about our services and how we can help rental agencies in London and across the UK.