Same day referencing based on a tenant applicant’s full credit file is being made available – in what is described as an industry first.
It follows a two-year project by insurance and referencing supplier Let Alliance.
CEO Andy Halstead said that until now, tenant referencing has relied on publicly available but limited credit information only – County Court judgements, individual voluntary arrangements and bankruptcies.
Halstead said: “It has not been possible previously to access and analyse the tenant applicant’s full credit file.
“However, for many years now, it has been a vision of mine to give letting agents access to tenant referencing using the same data that banks and credit card companies use.
“We have found a solution, and it is a complete game-changer.”
Let Alliance has been working with credit data agency and information supplier TransUnion to develop the process.
It allows consumers to give consent to Let Alliance, when acting for letting agents, to have access to their full credit files.
Accessing the data and initial affordability assessment will be completed in real time, says Halstead.
He said most tenant references will be completed within 24 hours.
He added: “The process works in the same way that banks, building societies and credit card companies make decisions.
“It is much faster than the historic rental vetting process, offering a much smoother application and allowing tenants to move into their new homes much more quickly.
“There will be no need for tenants to upload, scan or email documents, as the crucial information required will be accessed through Open Banking technology.”
Kelli Fielding, managing director at TransUnion, said it was a “pioneering initiative”, adding: “Consumers can now give their consent to share their full credit file with Let Alliance when they are conducting the checks, cutting timescales from days, or sometimes weeks, to a same day turnaround and making the consumer journey much smoother.”
The new system will be available from next Monday, June 17.
Comments (9)
Going back to DarrelKwong43’s question. What useful information will you obtain from the full credit file that is not contained in the publicly available data? Perhaps bank account balance, or credit card balance? Renters generally do not have mortgages. Income is rarely reported on a credit file. Many renters will have foreign credit files, and perhaps renters will deny consent for you to access the credit file. But I suppose… more data for the hungry algorithms, can’t hurt…
The integration of Open Banking will add value.
This appears to be great news but how much will it cost and who pays?
Hi Cara
The agent will pay a minimal fee to complete the reference, from that you will have access to our suite of products generating in excess of £350 per property per annum. Please get in touch if you wish to find out more.
Many Thanks
Mike
is this same info, that I can access through my experian/equifax report?
Hi Darrel
No, we will be accessing an applicants full credit profile not just public information which the current process is enabled to utlilise.
Regards
Mike
Thanks for that,,,,out of complete nosiness, what will you see, that I cannot see on my personal credit report?
Hi Darrel
The information that we will access is the full credit file information, very similar to the information individuals access when they request their own credit file. This is not how tenant referencing currently works, the credit data analysed is publicly available data only, CCJ’s etc.
The full credit file, along with data obtained from the Open Banking platform, is analysed through our bespoke algorithm to give an outcome that agents can use to make decisions. For the first time the data analysed will include affordability assumptions linked to our experience of managing a rent guarantee portfolio that protects £500m of annual rents. We will see much faster turnarounds, less fraud, more accurate assessments and ultimately better performance and lower costs for agents.
Cheers. Andy
That sounds amazing and something that will certainly help speed up the whole process and help agents combat the 15 day holding deposit rule! Great result! RV
Hmmm…eye spy…