Tenant referencing has been in the spotlight recently and reference and insurance firm Rentguard is keen to clear up some popular misconceptions.
The Observer recently ran a story about a tenant's right to know the reasons behind a failed reference check and a referee's right to confidentiality.
Meanwhile, the government's new right to rent scheme, which requires landlords or letting agents to confirm that all of their tenants have the right to live in the UK, is an extra pre-tenancy burden for landlords and agents.
According to the Competition and Markets Authority guidelines, the tenant's right to know the reasons for a failed check outweigh a referee's right to confidentiality.
Steve Jones, managing director of Rentguard said: Our policy is fully in-line with the Competition & Markets Authority guidelines, meaning that we will always provide a tenant with as much information as possible so that they have a clear understanding of the reasons why they failed a check and then advise them on what they need to do if any of the information within the reference is incorrect.
But Jones claims that, in reality, requests for this information are rare as the majority of tenants are all too aware of why they have failed a reference check.
Recent data from Rentguard Referencing shows that nearly 65% of references that fail are due to insufficient or irregular income with a further 19.7% declined due to a poor credit history. Only 2.9% of references failed due to a poor report from a previous landlord or agent.
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