Tenant referencing and insurance provider Landlord Secure says it has received assurances from Equifax that data regarding tenant referencing in the UK has not been affected by the credit reference agency’s recent data hack.

Landlord Secure has launched a new tool for landlords and letting agents to view a snapshot of how many active accounts a prospective tenant has and which are being paid on time, the total balance of credit in the previous month and any arrears or defaults.

The information is provided by Equifax, which last week was revealed to have been the subject of a hack by criminals who stole personal information on mainly US customers.

Equifax has said some UK customers are affected but hasn’t given any details yet on who, and what recourse they have if they are concerned.

A spokesman for Landlord Secure said: “Landlord Secure has been informed by Equifax that there has been no indication of unauthorised activity on Equifax’s core consumer or commercial credit reference databases.

“The criminal actors accessed Equifax Inc’s systems through a consumer website application intended for use by US consumers. Through this interface, the criminal actors obtained access to non-current data containing limited personal information of UK consumers.

“The data that was accessed does not include any trade-line or financial data.”

The Landlord Secure report is compiled using financial details obtained from Equifax using the information they would generally hold on file about the value, type and number of credit agreements someone has such as cards or loans, as well as how up to date they are with repayments, to build a credit score.

This information is provided from banks and typically used by lenders to check credit reports and scores when deciding to approve or reject applications for finance.

Credit reference agencies have a legal right to access and hold information on credit that individuals have as the idea is that it makes it easier for other providers to consider applications for finance. But credit reference agencies must operate under the Data Protection Act so have to keep it secure and not provide information such as account details publicly.

As the image below shows, the data is provided by Equifax so Landlord Secure doesn’t see who the accounts or credits are with, but they build a picture of how much debt a tenant has and how well they service it.

The report also tells landlords and agents if a tenant passes a reference based on their score or if a guarantor would be needed.

The cost varies depending on the level of checks but ranges from £3.50 to £9.95 plus VAT.

Landlord Secure has also launched LateRent, a free tool allowing landlords to report payment history to credit reference agency Equifax so there is a record for future reference checks.

Meanwhile, separate research by Landlord Secure claims landlords and letting agents are sometimes failing to do any checks on tenants.

A poll of 1,000 renters and landlords by the provider revealed that 75% of prospective tenants were not asked to provide proof of income before signing a lease agreement in the past year.

Just 22% said they were required to provide proof of sufficient funds in accounts linked to their rent, while 35% were asked to provide evidence that they had an active bank account at all and only 52% were asked to provide proof of ID.