When Tenant Referencing becomes an Investigation

Title Tag: Tenancy Referencing Company – Investigating References

A fundamental part of a successful let is for your tenancy referencing company to present letting agents with a reliable & accurate picture of your applicants. Whilst most applicants are honest, there are a hard-core element of fraudulent individuals seeking rental property who sometimes piggy-back off their existing activities when making a tenancy application.

Recently, Diligent referenced four applicants who were looking to rent a property in Central London. The applicants stated that for the past 4 years, they had all been at the same employment and sharing the same rental property in London.

During the tenant referencing process, Diligent requested copy bank statements from the applicants. The documentation provided, highlighted the salary being received from the given employer and the rental payments being made regarding their current tenancy. However, the accounts referred to a branch in North Yorkshire.

The given employer had a website and the contact details matched the information provided on the application forms. The website domain however, was only registered in December 2014. This was not consistent with the supplied information, as the applicants had advised they had all been working at the same employer for 4 years.

Further checks made regarding the employer identified the business address as being an accommodation address, with the operation running as a virtual office.

The landlord information regarding the current rental address was also false. A Land Registry check provided the actual landlord’s details, and upon contact with the owner of the property, we were informed the applicants had never lived at the address.

Needless to say, tenancy was not advised.

As part of Diligent’s standard tenant referencing service, letting agents benefit from our unique profiling system, which automatically flags applications falling into a potentially high risk category. This enables us to conduct the appropriate tenant referencing activities to help eliminate rogue applications.

Letting agents that use Diligent also benefit from:

• Common sense grading
• Legal & Rent cover
• Clear and concise reports
• An agent-only service
• Great value

To find out more about Diligent and our tenant referencing  services, just follow this link.