Landlords 'must carry out tenant checks'

News Category: Management

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Landlords must ensure they carry out checks on potential tenants, the National Landlords Association (NLA) has said.

David Salusbury, the chairman of the body, said landlords should not consider tenant checks an optional extra.

"If a potential tenant has a track record of not paying their rent or states they are employed when in fact they got sacked, the landlord should know," he commented.

Mr Salusbury added that landlords cannot afford to fail to check on a tenant's ability to pay rent on time, describing the mistake as "costly".

A tenant check enables landlords to find out if tenants have been the subject of county court judgements, as well as see if they have ever gone bankrupt or become insolvent in the past.

This comes after the NLA called for a government rethink into proposals to reform the Local Housing Allowance (LHA).

The NLA stated that a report by the Work and Pensions Select Committee proves LHA is not working as well as the government hoped.

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