A West Country company leading an initiative to combat rogue tenants has received backing from lettings agents and landlords.
TenantVet, which is based in Swindon, Wiltshire, has developed a database system telling agencies whether a prospective tenant has a track record of trouble.
The initiative is being piloted in the Swindon and north Wiltshire area with the aim of rolling it out nationwide in the coming months.
Simon Rosser, partner at Swindon Homes Direct, said the problem was fairly common and a database would help offer landlords greater protection.
He told the Swindon Advertiser: “Sometimes even if you run a credit check you have not got a leg to stand on when a tenant does a runner and so the poor landlord is left high and dry.
“This database is ideal because any problems and you can just check them out – if you are wrong, no harm done.”
Rosser said he had experienced problems with some tenants before. He explained: “We had a property in the town centre and the tenant was working outside the area. We tried to get a reference from a previous landlord but he said he had stayed with a friend.
“He was then made redundant and got into selling drugs. He started not paying his rent and then he did a runner three months in arrears.
“We found out he had done a similar thing in Northampton, where we later found him, and if we had this checking system we would have known about him.”
Craig Norris, lettings agent at Philip Andrews Estate Agents, told the paper: “It sounds like a good system and a lot of people would use it. It’s like cowboy builders – it should exist for problem tenants.”
Lorna Rose, director of sales and marketing at TenantVet, said: “In this country there are well over half a million tenants in arrears, owing more than two months’ rent.
“Rogue tenants cost the industry and local authorities many millions of pounds every year, not only in arrears but in damage to property and expensive legal actions to recover unpaid rents, compensation or to seek evictions.
He added that letting agencies can do credit checks but often will not know if the person has a history of nonpayment of rent, damage to property, improper use of a property or of simply vanishing.
The firm has spent two years developing the product to ensure the technology works properly and there are no breaches of the Data Protection Act.
