A new service has launched that pre-references and credit checks tenants before viewings. It also matches these tenants with suitable properties uploaded to the site by subscribing agents.
It says this makes for improved efficiencies and reduced costs for letting agents during the renting process.
It also means that tenants will not lose holding deposits paid after viewings as a result of failed references.
Tenants and guarantors do however have to pay £17 plus VAT upfront for a referencing and before they can see the properties on offer or go on any viewings.
Wayne Treveil, founder of Tenants Plus, has previously worked for Acorn, Square Mile Property Management and the Happy Tenant Co.
He said: “No system was available in the market that helped prevent letting transactions falling through due to failed referencing.
“After spending 15 years working in the lettings and property management industry, and being concerned about this situation, I have developed a service that provides the solution.
“Currently, referencing and credit checks are carried out after a viewing has taken place and an offer made. At this point the tenant has paid a holding deposit to secure the property as well as administrative and referencing fees that are generally non-refundable.
“If the tenant fails the referencing there are significant delays and cost implications for the letting agent.”
Tenants Plus provides pre-referenced tenants to agents prior to viewings taking place as well as matching them with their available properties.
Treveil said: “If an agent has an offer from a Tenants Plus tenant, it’s money in the bank.”
He emphasised that Tenants Plus is not a property portal. The only people who can view available properties are active tenants who have registered to find a property through Tenants Plus.
He said the service is already marketing over 1,500 rented properties and receiving new agent registrations each day.
Agents need to create an account to set up a company profile. Once they have done this, they can either manually upload properties or it can be done via an automated data feed.
They are then ready to receive pre-referenced tenant leads from customers who have been matched to their properties.
Agents are not charged for tenant leads, but do pay for accessing the tenant’s report and associated documents.
Fall throughs! Not that common, certainly with us. That is the advantage of taking a holding deposit; the vast majority of tenants know their credit history, so, if adverse, would not want to pay the holding deposit for fear of losing it and won’t apply in the first place.
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Two or three fall through’s a year, is acceptable at least thats the numbers we deal with not a huge factor in the process if you team are doing everything right.
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