I’m about to become a landlord for the first time and am currently going through my prospective tenants checks and references.
They are currently renting via an agency and they said the references will therefore come from them as they do not have direct contact with the landlord.
Is this standard practice or can the letting agency also provide references from the current landlord? Can I insist on getting a reference from their current landlord (even if it’s via their agency)? I would just feel more reassured to have direct feedback from the landlord.
The prospective tenants were quick to provide the number of a previous landlord, which they used to rent from directly, as further assurance, but feedback from the current landlord would be ideal.
Feedback from a previous Landlord is far more valuable that the reference from a current Landlord or Agent (who might be creative with the truth if they wish to ‘get rid’ of a bad tenant).
It is common practice for an agent to reply on behalf of a Landlord. This is one of the jobs that the Landlord pays the agent to manage for them.
I had the same advice as Karl from a letting agent - the referencing service they use has given up getting refs from current landlords because of so many giving too positive ones to get rid of poor tenants.
Som referencing will check their bank etc details to see if there is evidence of a regular monthly outgoing rent payment- I was told this was part of the checks by homelet