How to choose the right tenants

Hi, Phil from Sunshine. I’d like to talk to you today about how to choose the right tenant. Choosing a tenant is very important to you as a landlord, because it is your property and you must be happy with the person, that’s gonna live there. It is vital when choosing a tenant, you have in your own mind a clear picture of who you’d like in there, do you want a family, single person, sharers, students? Would you like people who are on housing benefit? Would you like smokers? Someone who has a pet? It’s important that you make the choice, you must know, it’s your property, fits with you.

Having decided what sort of person you would like, it’s then very important when we find that person, you find that person, they’re referenced and they’re professionally referenced, because you have to know that what they’re saying to you can be backed up by history and they’ve got a good credit. Do they own their own property? Are they renting a property? How long has their rental history been? How long have they been working? And with whom do they work and what contract are they on? If they’re on zero hours, then that’s gonna make it very difficult for them to be able to pay the rent on a guaranteed basis. Do they have a guarantor? It’s important to know.

In addition to that, they have to pass the Right to Rent, this was an act brought in 2015 and effective ’16 and it’s paramount that we know that they’re either a UK citizen with an up-to-date passport, that we can check in person and/or a birth certificate. If they’re from Europe or a Swiss citizen, again with up-to-date paperwork, that’s fine or if they have the right to rent within the country with a visa, all of these points matter to finding the right tenant and only then can you make a decision, that that tenant is the person for you.