Ten. Start with targeted advertising to make sure you’re advertising to the type of tenants most suitable for your property. Methods include newspapers, online estate agents, shared housing websites and more.
Nine. Be wary of potential tenants in crisis or in a hurry to move. People who are in the middle of a change in personal circumstances are often the most prone to problems.
Eight. Develop a screening process for calls you may receive from interested applicants. Find out exactly what a tenant is looking for, what their budget is and who they will be living with.
Seven. If the tenant is on benefits, you MUST check their “eligibility to receive”, otherwise you may be paid less than you think.
Six. If the deposit has been paid by the council, you need to be extra diligent in your vetting process, as there is a higher probability that this tenant has been previously evicted.
Five. Charge an admin fee. Remember to mention that admin fees are to cover costs such as credit checks, the provision of an inventory and tenancy agreement.
Four. Make sure you see some documentation proving the identities of the tenant and guarantor before you ask both to sign the tenancy agreement. As of 2015, landlords will have to check the immigration status of new tenants too.
Three. Before you engage with a letting agent, make sure that you vet them too. Ask to see a copy of their tenancy agreement, look at how they market properties, investigate their company history and see if they are members of any of these professional bodies (
see 1.28 of video).
Two. Always ask for a guarantor wherever possible. More often than not, landlords never recover from losses when there is no guarantor.
One. ALWAYS carry out credit checks on tenants. Credit checks are extremely important in avoiding unnecessary risk to yourself, yet can be relatively easy to conduct online.
You also find out about our online credit checks at
/credit-check