Many Landlords forget that having a Tenant in a property
is a business. The Landlord is the business owner
and Tenants are clients using the service provided
by the Landlord, (i.e. using the landlords property
to live in).
In
all business dealings there has to be some level of
professionalism and many Landlords get caught out
when setting up / maintaining the client relationship
and end up with new best friends instead of clients.
You may think that if you like the prospective Tenant
and get on with them, then there will be no problems
and everything will be alright....WRONG!!!
Naive and very, very wrong!
We are all capable of being taken in by appearances
or even a plausible sob story and some INEXPERIENCED
LANDLORDS would only see an opportunity to get
a new Tenant. They rush in blindly offering to help,
thinking emotionally instead of rationally. This is
exactly what a dodgy prospective Tenant wants as they
can look forward to a new home, (to wreck), a fresh
start, (to run up enormous bills) and rent they have
no intention of paying.
Some Landlords fall for it and can be sucked in completely.
They can be strung along for many months with the
Tenant giving this reason or that to avoid paying
the rent. They end up becoming too close to the Tenant
and end up with the moral dilemma of alienating a
new found friend or risk being seriously out of pocket.
Don’t
leave anything to chance. In order to avoid ending
up out of pocket with Tenants from hell, you need
to reference and do a credit check on all prospective
Tenants. Here you can find companies listed who will
do it all for you.
Landlords need to know exactly who is renting their
property in order to avoid getting caught out. It
is just like doing your own due diligence when buying
a property, except this time you are trying to decide
if the prospective Tenant is a realistic and viable
business proposition.
The
last thing a Landlord needs is to be summonsed to
appear in court for allowing a cannabis factory to
be set up in one of their properties or worse!
A
TENANT REFERENCING COMPANY will check
the employment history and financial status of all
parties wishing to rent your property, request previous
addresses and contact previous Landlords. Check the
CREDIT HISTORY
of all parties who will be named on the tenancy agreement
or are liable to pay rent. It is their job to provide
the landlord with a little peace of mind.
Remember if the prospective Tenant has struggled with
credit previously they will struggle again. The level
of risk accepted by a Landlord is the Landlords individual
choice.
Even the National Lottery check out who you
are and credit reference you,
if you decide to play the lottery online.
The smart Landlord will have taken out some form of
RENTAL INSURANCE
to cover poor Tenants or will only accept those with
credentials the Landlord feels will be beneficial
to the property and their bank balance.
If you are using a LETTING
& MANAGEMENT AGENT, they should do this for
you. Make sure you are provided with copies of all
paperwork they use to perform the reference and ask
for a copy of the credit check. Some Agents may get
a little twitchy about providing this data but if
an Agent doesn’t want to provide the necessary
information, you need to wonder why? Do they not have
it? Is it unsatisfactory?
Agents have a legal obligation to protect the landlord
and if they do not
act in your best interest, take them to Court.
Tenants are allowed and even encouraged not to pay
rent to private Landlords, the Government, through
its Local and Borough Councils, doesn’t see
anything wrong with it. They tell Tenants to sit tight
and wait for eviction and then they will re-house
them for free.
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