By Steve Roulstone

One of the advantages of being part of a Company that both sells the Franchise and runs a Franchise is the close access and conversations that I hold with my Staff. For example, Suzie who has worked at our Stafford office for the last two years was telling me this week how difficult it was to get people through their referencing at present, something which in the current financial environment we could all probably understand.

The requirement is justified.

What has to be remembered here is that Landlords must have a successful reference to be able to obtain a Rent and Legal expenses policy, something which I have confirmed on many occasions, is a must in the present climate. So as agent of the Landlord, we must do what is best for our Landlords at all times, the problem can occur when the Tenant who wants to live in the Landlords house, feels that our requirements to get such a pass are either becoming expensive in the Tenants eyes (which is a problem that has been reported for years and I fully expect it to be in the news again this year) or that the requirements to achieve the pass (Self employed parents usually the problem, or Guarantors who are retired) are far too onerous for the circumstances.

Information is everything.

Of course, what every agent should do is provide the prospective Tenants with as comprehensive a pack of information explaining the process they are entering in to as clearly as possible, as well as costs associated with the process and options available as the process develops. But it is our experience that Tenants do quite often sign without reading, or pay scant regard to the content. It is only when, again in doing our job, having already assessed the situation prior to taking any costs from the Tenant, initial applications fail and we try our best to find an acceptable solution to enable the Tenants to move ahead, that the process can suddenly come under scrutiny when full attention at the commencement could have avoided this common scenario.

Openness and Honesty.

The worst case scenario for us is when the Referencing Agency come across something in the Tenants background that has been omitted from the initial information requested. Now we have a problem for all parties having advised the Landlord we have a Tenant being processed and a Tenant having to find somebody to stand in their shoes (Guarantor) to enable them to proceed. This can be the time, depending upon what has been discovered, to take the Landlords opinion, with our recommendation and bring a stop to the process. But if a decision is made to continue Tenants must understand that for both the re-application to the Referencing Agency and the additional time and effort put in by our staff additional costs will be generated and therefore paid for.

Producing effort and savings.

So at a time when Referencing Agencies are correctly taking a sterner view on Tenant applications, complications are just not needed, because Tenants must remember that the property is effectively off the market whilst we go through the process with them and other Tenants more suitable could have come and gone during the Referencing period, so our recommendations has to be to give full disclosure from day one. Honesty really is the best policy and you will either get the full effort of the Agent to guide you through the process because of this or at least be given an experienced opinion which could save you your money in the first place.

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