A guide to the best tenant referencing companies
By Alan Boswell Group
Find the best tenant referencing service to suit your needs. If you’re renting out a property, choosing a tenant is one of the most important decisions you’ll make.
Tenant referencing is an essential part of the landlord’s toolkit. To make sure you know as much as possible about your prospective tenant’s history and their ability to pay the bills, getting a comprehensive reference completed before you agree to a tenancy agreement is vital.
Depending on the level of service you pay for, tenant referencing typically reports on a tenant or guarantor’s:
Employment history
Previous rental history
Credit check and affordability
Identity checks
We’ve put together a guide to the best tenant referencing services available, explaining what you get for your money. We look at some of the top referencing services available in the UK.
Alan Boswell Group Tenant Referencing
Alan Boswell Group offers a two-tier tenant referencing service through FLS Corporate Referencing Services, with a basic credit and identification check for £12.50 per tenant, and a more comprehensive service for £29.50 per tenant, covering:
an employment history check;
references from previous landlords;
identification and bank account check;
credit check and affordability calculation.
A written report is provided for both services.
A company reference check for corporate tenants is available for £21.50 per company, including a comprehensive report covering business activity verification, details of previous names and subsidiaries, company profit and loss accounts, and county court judgement history.
Rentguard
Rentguard also offers two levels of service:
a basic credit check for £10.95 per tenant;
a ‘full profile’ check for £29.50 per tenant, which includes additional verification of income, landlord references, and an affordability check.
The company aims to turn around reports within 48 hours. Rentguard also offer a company check for £19.95 per company, and a service especially designed for letting agents which includes a four-hour ‘insight’ service.
NRLA Tenant Referencing
NRLA full members receive a discount on pay-as-you-go tenant referencing, including a next-day express service, a 48-hour standard service, and a company check.
The ‘express’ service, includes the usual identification, employment and credit checks, plus an alias name search and linked address check. This costs £33 for non-members and £29.50 for members.
The standard service costs £29.50 for non-members, or £24.50 for members, and packages are available for up to 50 tenant checks at £950.A company reference costs £20 for non-members, or £15 for members.
OpenRent
OpenRent carries out a comprehensive look at a tenant’s financial status, credit score and risk assessment, offering two packages both priced at £20.
There’s a ‘speedy reference’ service that aims to get results back within 24 hours, providing:
A credit check;
Identity and linked address information;
Court record checks;
Right to rent check.
Their more comprehensive service, taking between three and five days, covers the above plus an affordability rating, previous landlord reference and an income and employment check.
FLS Tenant Referencing
FLS has been providing tenant referencing services to letting agents and landlords in the UK since 1992 and offers landlords a variety of packages. A simple one-hour credit check costs £9.95, and a more comprehensive check with a four-hour turnaround costs £34.95.
A tenant reference with a 48-hour turnaround time costs £29.50, and a company check costs £14.95.The same services are available for letting agents, with pricing dependent on the number of checks required.
Let Alliance
Let Alliance’s ‘intelligent referencing’ service offers four options: express (one-hour basic check), ultimate (a comprehensive service with all the usual checks), global (including Right to Rent), and evict (the same as ultimate plus a full legal eviction service).The company also provides a same day referencing service using real-time financial information in conjunction with credit reporting agency TransUnion.
Rent 4 Sure
Rent 4 Sure offers three levels of tenant referencing for landlords.
There’s a basic credit, identity and bank account verification; a mid-tier package also including landlord and employer references; and a comprehensive package adding a monthly income breakdown and affordability check.
Checks on UK limited companies include creditworthiness, details of court judgements, accounts records and credit limits and ratings.
HomeLet
HomeLet is a long-established provider of tenant referencing and offers three levels of checks.
Starting at £30 per tenant for the basic credit and identity check, costs increase to £54 for the ‘enhance reference’, which also includes employer and previous landlord references and verified income.
The top ‘optimum’ level, costing £84, adds legal help to evict a tenant if they fail to pay the rent in the first 12 months.
RentProfile
RentProfile was formed in 2016 after one of the co-founders became a victim of a rental scam, so they know first-hand the importance of tenant referencing.
The company claims an average turnaround time of 24 hours for a written report costing £15 per tenant. This includes a full range of checks including affordability, landlord or agent references, employment verification, court records, and mobile phone verification.
Homeppl
With about 2% of tenant applications said to be fraudulent, Homeppl uses a variety of fraud prevention tools, including data enrichment, behavioural analysis, and network tests to ensure that you let your property to good tenants.
The company uses Open Banking to assess tenants’ financial data, and cutting-edge technology to analyse information in documents like bank statements, passports, or bills.
Mudhut
For £12, Mudhut provides an instant credit, identity and address history check, with an immediate report using data from credit reference agency Equifax.
Information includes a credit score; electoral roll checks; current, previous and linked address checks; bankruptcy, insolvency and county court judgement reports; and checks on aliases and financial associates.
A risk assessment score will tell you how reliable your tenant is likely to be.
Minimising your rental risks
For the relatively small sums of money involved, it’s not worth leaving your choice of tenant to chance. And if you want to take out rent guarantee insurance, insurers will usually insist that all tenants undergo a tenant referencing check.
For more guidance and advice for landlords, check out Alan Boswell Group’s landlord hub.