Tenant referencing

[Jimmy87]

Hi All

I've just purchased my first Buy to Let property and have a potential tenant lined up.

I will not be using a letting agent so will be looking to use one of the many companies that offer stand alone tenant referencing.

I have searched the forums but cannot seem to find much information with regards to peoples experiences using such companies.

Could anyone please offer their experiences with any such companies, good or bad. I'm looking to have a comprehensive and stringent check completed as would rather look for a new tenant than let to one that is likely to have issues with rent arrears etc.

The tenant hasn't rented before so will not be able to provide a reference from a previous landlord.

OpenRent's system looks very user friendly and competitively priced. I have read a lot of good feedback about their advertising platform but cannot see as much info / experiences of their referencing service.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[jpkeates]

The rules of the forum don't allow us to comment on companies, either positively or negatively.

You may get some responses via personal message.

[Beswick]

I've used OpenRent twice for advertising and referencing. No complaints from me ...

[DPT57]

I use Openrent to do the advertising and referencing. There are others.

If you have just entered the BTL market then firstly, welcome and congratulations. Secondly, don't even think about going alone until you have done at least some basic training and got hold of a good set of documents and checklists. I would suggest joining the NRLA.

[Jimmy87]

Thanks for the replies. That explains why I couldn't see any reviews as such for any of the companies.

I will check out the NRLA now.

[amy131]

I was contacted by a referencing company and asked to give a verbal reference recently. I was asked the following:
- To confirm how long the tenant had lived at my property
- If the tenant had looked after the property
- If all rent had been paid and on time

The above would probably be sufficient if renting out a flat, but this person is moving from one house share and likely to another. For house shares I would personally want a bit more information. I was not asked if I would rent to this person again, that has been a question always asked on questionnaires I have received relating to past tenants, I this case that answer would have been no. Point two above was not relevant I advised as I was am a live-in landlord for this property. The questioning had not been adequate to pick up on issues in this case. My advice being to check what information the referencing service obtains and that it suits your requirements.

[royw]

I didn't think openrent were very thorough though I'm not sure they're any worse than others. My tenant was living with parents having recently returned to the UK after working abroad and moving to my area to take up a new job. They accepted a photocopy of the job offer as proof of employment but didn't check with the employer that the offer had been accepted. They also accepted her parents address without asking how long she'd been there. I didn't expect them to contact anyone abroad but I did expect them to know she'd been there. Perhaps you get what you pay for and £20 doesn't get you much.