Landlord Law Essentials

Landlord Law Essentials Part 4 - Choosing and checking tenants

This is probably the most important thing you will do as a landlord.

The importance of choosing good tenants
Preparation work
Taking details from applicants
Other things to consider:
Checking if applicants have the right to rent
What if it goes wrong?
Further Reading

The importance of choosing good tenants

Surveys and studies have shown that many landlords do no proper checking of tenants and just take the first person who comes along.

Speaking as someone who has in the past been called in many times to evict a tenant where things have gone wrong, I would definitely say that this is NOT the way to do it!

It is essential that tenants are properly checked and referenced. You may be a very good judge of character, but con men are professionals and appearing respectable and credit-worthy is their job.

Then there is the increasing problem of forged documents and references.

Most experienced landlords would probably agree that choosing is a good tenant is the number one most important thing to do as a landlord!

After the Renters Rights Act comes into force on 1 May 2026 it will be more difficult for landlords to evict unsatisfactory tenants with the abolition of fixed terms and section 21. It will then largely be up to the tenant when the tenancy ends, not the landlord.

Remember you will only be able to evict tenants if one of the grounds in the Housing Act 1988 Schedule 2 applies (we will be looking at this in Part 11).

So NEVER let in someone you are not sure about just because you want someone living in the property. You could be stuck with them for the next 20 years. Better to have a property empty than have a tenant who fails to pay rent and trashes the property.

In fact, it is probably a good idea when choosing tenants to consider whether they are someone you would be willing to work with for a very long time, such as 10-20 years.

Lets look first at what you should do before you start looking

Preparation work

Here are some things you should do first:

Ensure that the property is in a proper condition to rent. This is going to be increasingly important. My Landlord Law service has a detailed Property Checklist which will help with this.
Select a professional referencing company. Make sure this is a company that will do proper checks for fraud – for example, to make sure that applicants are who they say they are and that documents submitted are not forged.
Prepare your information form. You should always have a form which you use to take information from tenants. It’s a good idea to draft this to reflect the checks your referencing company will be doing, so speak to them about the information they will need.
Make sure you have your Energy Performance Certificate, which should be provided to applicants with the property details.
You also need to have obtained your gas and electricity certificates – we will be discussing this further in Part 9.
Prepare your data information notice. This should be given to applicants when you take their details, so you comply with the data protection rules. We have draft forms available for Landlords on my Landlord Law service.
Check for data breaches in virtual tours and photos. Sometimes these can inadvertently include confidential tenant information, for example, if a bank statement is left lying on the table.
Decide if you will want to take a deposit. If so, you should investigate the various schemes and sign up to the scheme you intend to use. We discuss this further in part 6.
Prepare the property details. If you are using an agent, they will do this for you. Make sure that everything is 100% accurate, and do not try to cover up possible problems.

Note also that when the Renters Rights Act comes into force on 1 May 2026 you will in addition face Local Authority fines if

You fail to give a ‘proposed rent’ in all adverts. We will discuss this further in Part 7
You discriminate against applicants on benefit or who have children. The penalty fine for this will be £7,000 with a government-recommended starting point of £6,000. So do not say in your adverts ‘No DSS’ or ‘No children’ and treat all applicants the same.

So far as the anti-discrimination rules are concerned, it’s OK to refuse an applicant if you don’t think they can afford the rent (this is confirmed by the Renters Rights Act s41), and if the property is genuinely unsuitable for children.

But if you are refusing an applicant for these reasons, keep proper records just in case you are sued by the rejected applicants for compensation or served a Civil Penalty Notice fine by the Council.

Taking details from applicants

Your information form

The best way to do this is to use an information form. This can be used to take details such as their name, address and previous addresses, employers’ details, next of kin, vehicles etc.

You also need to check the applicant’s ID and make sure they are who they say they are. Remember that criminals often target rented property to use for criminal activities. Often, properties are converted to cannabis farms, with considerable damage being done to the property in the process. So it pays to take care.

We have a draft information form which can be used by Landlord Law members to adapt for their use.

Ask for copy bank statements

You should also ask for their last three months’ bank statements, just to check that they can actually afford to live in your property.

Many tenants will consider this to be an invasion of their privacy. If they take this attitude, tell them that they don’t have to provide any bank statements, it is up to them. But you will only be considering them as tenants if the statements are provided. They have the right to refuse to provide the statements, but then you have the right to choose who you take on as a tenant.

As discussed in the previous section, any documents provided should be passed to your referencing company to be checked for fraud.

Take references

These should include:

Employer – probably the most important as their salary will be paying your rent!
Bank – more to check that they actually have an account, as bank references rarely give much away
Former landlord – remember that if they are a bad tenant, their current landlord may be desperate to get rid of them, so try to speak to an earlier landlord, too
Personal – but don’t rely on this too much, as the person will probably be primed to give a good report. Although if the referee is someone you can trust, it can be a good indicator.

When taking references, and indeed all the information provided to you, you need to take the attitude that everything is false until proven correct.

So, make sure that the employer actually exists, for example, by searching online. Don’t take the tenant’s word for it – if they are a con man they will be lying.

Check them out online

I am not suggesting here that you hack into their private facebook account! But there is nothing wrong with putting their name into Google, X, LinkedIn and Instagram and seeing what comes up.

Just bear in mind, though, that there may be others with the same name. So the David Jones whose Facebook account talks about his three pitbull terrier dogs may not be the same David Jones who has told you he has no pets.

Do anti-money laundering checks

There is a fairly detailed post on my Landlord Law Blog which explains this.

Other things to consider:

Here is a non-exclusive list:

Will they need a guarantor? If you are worried about their ability to pay (particularly after 1 May 202,6 when taking rent in advance will be prohibited) this may be advisable.
Do they have a vehicle? If so make them aware of any parking issues at the property, particularly if they are going to have to pay for a permit.
Will they want to keep a pet? After the Renters Rights Act comes into force on 1 May 2026, it is going to be difficult for landlords to refuse permission unless there is a genuine legal reason, such as your lease forbidding pets or other tenants being allergic. Note that if you permit pets, there is a Pet Form on Landlord Law, which will amend your tenancy agreement to include suitable tenancy agreement clauses.
Will they want to run a home business at the property? If this is not going to be intrusive to neighbours or damage the property, you should normally agree. Again we have a form on Landlord Law which will amend the tenancy agreement to include suitable clauses.

Checking if applicants have the right to rent

Under the Immigration Act 2014, with effect from 1 February 2016, all landlords managing rented property in England must check, not less than 28 days before the tenancy starts, that all prospective occupiers of the property (i.e. NOT just the tenants) have the right to reside in England & Wales.

It is important that you check everyone who is going to live in the property AND keep a record of the check, so you can prove that it was done if you are called to do so by the Home Office. The penalties for non-compliance are very substantial:

For ordinary residential landlords, the fine for a first offence will go up from £1,000 to £10,000, and
For a repeat office from £3,000 to £20,000
For lodger landlords, the fine for a first offence will go up from £80 to £5,000, and
For a repeat offence, from £500 to £10,000

Note that your aim should be to protect your position, rather than doing the Home Office’s job for them. If you have done a proper check and kept a record of this, you will have a ‘statutory excuse’ if the tenant is later found to be without a right to rent. So make sure you have done all checks before handing over the keys and letting tenants into the property.

When doing your checks, always refer the online guidance provided by the Home Office to find out what you need to do. You will find a guide here along with links to other useful pages.

Don’t rely on printed copies of the online guidance, as it is updated regularly and you need to have seen the most recent version.

There is a helpful article on the Landlord Law Blog which provides more information. It was written in 2016 but has been updated since. As it is about general principles rather than detailed guidance, it is still valid.

You can, if you do not want to do the checks yourself, pass this work on to your agents, but make sure that there is a written agreement confirming this or you could still be fined if they get things wrong.

There are also now certified identity service providers (ISPs) which you can use – read about these here, plus you can now check someone’s right to rent by checking their share code.

What if it goes wrong?

If you have used an agent to source tenants

Most agents are very careful to vet prospective tenants properly, but sadly this does not always happen. When I did eviction work, often the unsatisfactory tenant being evicted had been sourced by agents.

It is sometimes difficult for landlords to check why the agents chose a particular tenant as agents will often refuse to provide details of the credit reference reports, citing the Data Protection Act.

As the referencing is to protect YOUR position (and as they are your agents and you have paid for them, the references belong to you anyway), this is not a valid argument. Particularly if you are registered with the ICO.

I would suggest that when you first instruct agents (if you instruct agents), you make it clear that you will want to see ALL references and credit reports on the tenants that they select for your property.

If they are worried about data protection, they should tell credit reference companies and referees that the information will be passed on to the landlord. This will resolve any issues.

If agents fail to do proper checks and you get landed with a bad tenant because of this, you can sue agents for your losses. For example, see blog posts here and here.

Referencing does not always work

Unfortunately, careful referencing does not always prevent the occasional bad tenant from slipping through.

Then, there are situations that arise after the tenant has moved in. People lose their jobs, get ill and separate from their partners. These all impact on their financial situations and make it hard for them to pay rent. You cannot prevent this, just try to deal with it when it happens.

We talk about this later.