I’m sure you’ve all heard and used the phrase “you don’t get something for nothing”. Well, this is also very true with regards to tenant referencing. I received an email today, which was spam I might add, telling me how I can get a reference for as little as £6.95 +vat. If you read on, which most people tend not to do, you will realise as I did, that these companies can do this by offering discounts so they can capture your contact details and then try to sell you their insurance policies.
Did you know that your name can be worth up to £20 to an insurance company?
Someone once told me, which is oh-so true, that anyone can buy a 49p hamburger but then they’ve got to eat it! and, just like a 49p hamburger, a cheap reference will give you the same indigestion! as with everything in this life you get what you pay for.
Our mission is to work entirely for our landlords and letting agents to keep them safer and we believe that we should be entirely transparent about our costs. Income is re-invested into sustaining and growing our community of members. The more members we have, the more data we have on tenants. This helps to improve our free service, which in turn protects your investment and more importantly yours and your good tenants personal safety.
Let’s face it, people fall for these sales ploys and scams all the time in exchange for receiving “discounts”. Tesco have stopped their buy one get one free deals as people have realised that it’s not buy one get one free; it’s actually buy two at half price, which is a great way to get you to buy two.
At Landlord Referencing we don’t believe you should buy your insurance and referencing packages together. Nobody else in the UK offers a credit reference, without a yearly subscription, and insurance coupled with a free lifestyle reference. Lifestyle tenant referencing is simple; thousands of professionals within the same field sharing their information about their tenants, both good and bad, then using this data to assist one another in protecting themselves against any further damages or losses on any new contract of tenure in the future.
It is an important service because while landlords can undertake references from credit agencies, employers, friends and family, it does not tell you how a tenant may conduct themselves both with regards payments and lifestyle. Their previous landlord can give a 100% unbiased and informative opinion as they have one-to-one experience in dealing with the tenant first hand.
So… the lifestyle reference was born; to give you the real information that you need to identify problem tenants before they try to rent from you.
Our database relies on members providing us with the information on their existing and previous tenants, which is then confidentially and safely stored to offer a match to other landlords and letting agents who may search against them for the purpose of a reference in the future. No personal details are passed on to any third party, just the information on tenants, previous landlord or agent, therefore tenants details are never put at risk.
The Landlord Referencing lifestyle reference has been designed as a safe and legal way for landlords and letting agents to give and receive up to the minute references between one another on existing and previous tenants as to how they conduct themselves during their tenure.
The best news is, it’s free! At Landlord Referencing you see what you get and you get what you pay for, the best product at the best price.
By Samii Boyd of Landlord Referencing