How to vet your tenants remotely - without ever meeting them

I've just vetted a new tenant without even meeting them.

It was easy.

All I did was have a quick chat with the prospective tenant. He sounded reasonably plausible i.e. he was working and been with his current landlord for a couple of years. What's more he was after a fairly long-term let! Love it....

So I explained that I would need to credit check him and he was fine about it. I sent him a list of details that I needed from my prospective tenant by email.

1. His landlord reference

2. A work reference

3. Personal details so I could carry out a basic credit check to ensure he was not a serial debtor: his existing address, full name and date of birth

4. Copies of the last 6 months bank statements on his main bank account

The prospective tenant impressed me

The prospective tenant duly responded. I was impressed. Not only was he quick, he was very thorough and even emailed me scanned copies of his bank statements.

Having spoken to his landlord (difficult position for him & me) I'm effectively robbing him of his customer. He genuinely didn't appear to be expecting the call and was lost for words when faced we the prospect of loosing one of his tenants. I then move on to his employer. He was genuinely positive about the prospective tenant who I think works in accounts so hopefully he will be able to budget.

Next it was a case of going through the tenants bank statements. It was clear that the prospective tenant was not a big spender. Little cash withdrawals and a large monthly cash amount that i presumed was his landlords rental payment. I was warming to this guy.

Finally - the credit check

Finally, I went to the property hawk lettings directory and selected credit check service. It cost me £9.70 and true to form it was delivered the same day. I have subsequently realised that Letting Ref does a credit check for £9.99 but you get one extra check for free.

The check didn't show any 'nasties' in the shape of CCJs.

I'm happy and gave the tenant the green light to hand in his notice to his existing landlord. I obviously feel a pang of guilt about robbing from your own. But hey - being a landlord is a business and a competitive one at that!

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