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How do landlords choose tenants?

Journalist: Tom Haynes, Daily Telegraph

ended 09. October 2023

Hello!

Working on an advice piece for Telegraph Money with the working headline: How to secure a rental property, by landlords.

I want to hear directly from landlords, in their own words, how they select tenants when renting out a property. Ideally, I want one example of each of the following:

  • Someone who allows tenants to bid, and offers the property to whoever can stump up the highest monthly rent (letting agent commentary also welcome here)
  • Someone who offers tenants the opportunity to pay rent upfront, and chooses based on who can do so, or who can offer the most
  • Someone who operates on a first-come, first-served basis, and does not allow for bidding
  • Someone who prioritises a tenant based on a background check, and chooses based on the ‘quality’ of the tenant

If any of the above applies to you (or if there's another factor I haven't considered), please write in. How do you decide what is a “quality tenant”? How much are you willing to allow tenants to overbid, and do you set initial prices knowing this will happen? What do you do with the money if rent is paid upfront? And why have you opted for the method that you do?

This will be geared towards renters, so any tips are useful. Should tenants be proactive in getting a good reference from a previous landlord? Or be willing to provide certain personal information? Are there any best practices when bidding for a rental property? Let me know!

Best,

Tom.

2 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Michelle Lawson
Director at Lawson Financial
In my experience, the best and only way to assess a tenant is on quality and background checks by way of passing a good tenant referencing scheme. They need to have the right level of income to pass, a clean credit profile (or a good explanation of adverse records), a good history, a suitable previous landlord reference where possible and be a suitable fit for the property. Landlords do currently have a large pool to choose from so anything prospective tenants can do to give the landlord comfort is a bonus. Most importantly, be honest at the outset as good landlords will find out things at some point and honesty and integrity is a big tick and will help set things off nicely at the outset and hopefully aid a good ongoing tenant/landlord relationship.
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Joe Garner
Founder & Managing Director at Joe Garner Consulting
Another factor is social impact.

Local authorities are “renters” in the sense that they will occupy rental properties.

A three to five year contract with guaranteed rent from the local authority with the added benefit of a positive social impact is attractive.

Whilst the rent is expected to be discounted, the shortfall is more than made up by the lack of void periods, maintenance and management etc that are all at the local authorities risk.