Tenants 'lie to landlords to get property'

A significant number of tenants admit that they lie to their landlord about how much they earn when trying to rent a new home, research shows.

Data gathered by Experian indicates that 23 per cent of tenants enhance or fabricate their income to secure a rental property. Another four per cent said that they altered their job title to make it sound more impressive for prospective landlords.

"Property is an important investment, with many landlords taking out costly buy-to-let mortgages - as many as 330,000 in 2006 alone - so landlords need to be sure they are protecting these large investments adequately," explained Peter Brooker at Experian.

"Many landlords insist that tenants are professionals on the basis that they will be paid well enough to afford the rent - but this leads to some prospective tenants lying about their employment status and their salary."

Mr Brooker explained that this could mean that landlords will have to put up with bad tenants who struggle to pay their monthly rent.

He added that some tenants simply disappear "leaving the landlord with hundreds or even thousands of pounds in unpaid and unrecoverable debt".

However, it was recently reported that many around 125,000 landlords have already signed up for tenancy deposit schemes which can protect money in the event of a dispute with those renting.