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Lifetime Renting: Do Long-Term Tenants Still Need to be Referenced?
This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
If you’re a tenant who has been reliably paying their rent for years, without missing a month, it can be frustrating to have to go through the traditional referencing process each time you move house. Furthermore, as it currently stands, tenants are usually charged for this, often an additional part of the fees they have to pay when they find a property.
A PropTech startup is questioning whether long-term lifestyle tenants should really be expected to go through the traditional renting process every time they move between rental properties.
Research by Your Move indicated that a third of all current tenants have already rented for six years or more. According to RentalStep, with this shift towards more people renting long-term, the lettings industry needs to provide a more streamlines and suitable process for renters and landlords.
Mike Georgeson, founder and chief executive of RentalStep says: “With many tenants now renting privately for 10 years or longer, they have the opportunity to build up a comprehensive rental history.
“It therefore seems logical that all this information is stored in one central place and that tenants and landlords don’t have to undertake a lengthy, admin-heavy and sometimes expensive traditional referencing process every time someone wants to move home.”
“If tenants are renting for the long-term but moving around frequently to experience different locations, there shouldn’t be a need for them to constantly resubmit the same information,” Georgeson explains.
A changing housing market means more people are ‘lifetime renting’; exemplary tenants deserve a better (and cheaper) system for repetitive reference checks.
‘Lifetime renting’ tenants deserve a better system
“The cost of referencing prospective tenants is something all landlords need to consider,” says Georgeson.
“From next year, it will no longer be possible to charge tenants upfront fees and it’s widely expected that the cost of the traditional referencing process will fall to landlords.”
“As the market changes to provide a fairer deal for tenants, landlords must adapt and think about their own costs and whether it makes sense to pay a fee each time a tenant needs referencing,” he says.
“We all need to embrace the shift towards lifestyle renting and provide an easier way for tenants to move between properties, while allowing landlords to find fully referenced tenants in one place with less administration and at a fraction of the cost,” Georgeson concludes.
RentalStep launched in Spring 2017, and is taking part in the government’s Rent Recognition Challenge, which aims to develop applications that will help renters boost their credit scores.
