Hi Guys,
Wanted to get your thoughts on the situation. A prospective tenant has failed their referencing because of two CCJ’s amounting to £1250. I’ve asked for additional information from the prospective tenant and they advised they got into the debt after a broken marriage and it was their now ex partner who racked it up in their name. What are your thoughts on accepting on tenants who have had CCJ’s? Would you completely avoid them, regardless of the situation?
thanks in advance
Yes maybe they will be ok… but there are so many tenants why would you take risk? ok tenant with no ccj can be bad not the pay the rent too, but better to be safe than sorry,. Imaine if they do not pay rent on time you will be kicking yourself !
ccjs can be ok sometimes but would not take without a garantor
people should get a seocnd chancce. everyone is tard with the same brush too often not everyone who has been in debts is the same, you could have been ill or had an emergency but people dont care.
None of my past tenants have passed referencing. Go with your gut, if they seem decent and normal and have secure professional jobs then may be okay.
Only one bad experience, a bar manager and his disabled wife, had to cut my losses and ask them to leave. loads of debt letters still coming for them.
CCJ is not the only measuring tool to assess the ability of some body to pay rents. He/She may be in debts but not registered with CCJ. How do you assess that person?
Most credit references do not have information about rents but address records and simply rejecting a potential tenant because of CCJs is disputable. There are those who have made payment plans for CCJs and such information is unavailable on reference sites; hence, making CCJs a probability propensity to depend on.
There is always a degree of risk in any business and if you do not risk, you will not make any profit and it’s a basic business principle. Follow your guts and give people their chance in life.
Really good point Canisius - I totally agree. Referencing is just one tool landlords have to assess risk. Landlords should consider all information about tenants and consider them each on their own merits, instead of making choices based on one factor, e.g. CCJs.
if you are in doubt ask them to send you 3 months bank statements (they can delete account numbers). this will give you a snapshot on what income he has and what expenses he pays for. if you see rent coming out every month chances are he will pay his rent. if you see loads of Wonga loans, many large atm withdrawals, sporadic income coming in and rent/utilities not on dd it is not a good omen
if they don’t want to disclose the bank statements get rid
Great Sam. At least we have the same opinion.
One other issue that bothers me is why OpenRent charge tenants £20 for a comprehensive reference check while any body could get the same report from Expirient for just £2. It is possible to review these charges?
I think they will be scrapped in a week anyway.
Hi Canisius, a credit check is just one part of Comprehensive Referencing. Comprehensive Referencing includes, e.g. contacting the previous landlord and the employer, which aren’t included in a simple credit check.
Hi Sam
Thanks for the quick response. Please my question was the cost. Whether £20 is not too much to ask
Regards
Hi, OK Sure — I meant that one of the reasons it doesn’t cost £2 pounds like the credit check does is that it includes a credit check, plus several additional things, all of which take some additional resources to obtain.
avoid anyone with a ccj.
PS they may of course be making arrangements to pay it off and be able to prove this to you.
Being a landlord is difficult I was a landlord I had a property I rented to a couple both working good jobs credit worthy but they wrecked the house and I evicted them as soon as I realised I was lucky not to get in to any legal battle.
But my personal circumstances changed through divorce and found myself starting all over again having to rent this has been a degrading experience.
Being asked for details I consider private bank details wage slips amongst other things being made to jump through hoops and me and my family have felt like second class citizens whilst I understand checks have to be made to get the right tenant credit checks wage slips don’t always make a good tenant.
After many bad experience’s with renting agents and private landlords and spending my own money in some cases to improve the properties re-carpeting and renovating the kitchen and bathroom at one property I rented.
We eventually found a landlord that charges a fair rent does not hassle me he does his bit in gas checks every year and if their is a major problem he will fix it .
In return we look after the property as if it was our own if the tap leaks I replace it all decoration repairs interior and non major repairs exterior I do at my own cost .
We have lived here for ten years now .
And I pay all the bills on time but due to disagreement with the water company over a water bill on a previous address long story but I now have a poor credit rating.
Not only that I don’t earn a lot due to limited working hrs having 3 children with Autism one with Asperger’s.
But rent and bills paid on time and have been for the past ten yrs and previously being in the building trade I have only improved the property since I have been here I am 100% certain the landlord would give me a glowing reference.
We now are finding ourselves in need of a bigger property but dread going through this all again.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Michael. It’s always very interesting to hear from people who have been both tenants and landlords.
Wishing you the best with your search for a larger home for your family.
I had a great tenant who did all her minor repairs you sound like a decent tenant. If you can prove everything you say I do not see why you would not get a 'place. A good referal from a landlord makes all the difference. I have done so for several tenants.
I’m a prospective tenant here and trying to read up on my chances of being accepted my a landlord for a property that I’m in love with.
It’s really frustrating for me as I found out I had two CCJs due to parking tickets I had no idea about and after moving from Manchester to London the private parking company failed to look into an updated address.
This resulted in the CCJs and the only reason I found out was due to failing a credit check.
I was gutted!
I’ve never missed a payment, I’d like to think I’m an ideal tenant and can provide all references, tax returns, proof of income and quite literally anything else you’d need.
It seems such a shame that £100 ruined my chances of being able to move into a home, so it’s nice to see that some landlords are willing to consider this.
I am also waiting for the CCJs to be set aside after getting a lawyer involved and can provide confirmation of this but the actual process of them not longer being on my report is long.
So I can only hope.
Anyway, thought I’d show the other side as we’re not all bad.
If it’s because you haven’t paid rent, I’d say that’s very different.
If you are upfront with landlords and willing to share the evidence to back up your story, some landlords will give you a chance. I probably would.