VETTING................

My brother is intending to return to Scotland after spending the last thirty years in South Africa.  There seems to be reluctance from letting agents and landlords to consider him as a suitable tenant and, after speaking to some, you would think that he was an alien and not a Scot returning home.  Why is this?

Anyone considering letting property should always thoroughly vet any prospective tenant before signing a lease and handing over keys.  Your brother will fall into the category of a tenant without a recent history in the United Kingdom and therefore may be difficult to vet. 

We always seek a financial reference for any of our tenants.  Usually this is through a standard credit check using a reputable agency that will carry out a financial search on an individual at a specific address.  These searches rely on the applicant being registered to vote at the given address and in some cases, where for example the given address is under someone else's name, the applicant may not feature in the check. 

In these cases a Bank Opinion is sought.  This is where the applicant gives permission, to his or her Bank, to provide a written "Opinion" as to whether their customer can afford the requested monthly rental.  Banks and Building Societies nowadays tend to charge their customer's for this service.  Under current banking rules a bank can give an opinion, with the customers express permission, directly to the landlord or agent.  These opinions do not devolve personal information or specific information regarding the customers account but do give an indication of the customer's ability to pay the monthly rent sought.  Generally banks have a short list of standard statements to indicate the level of financial stability of their customer.

Key-Lets also seek a current landlord's reference (where one is available), together with an employers reference and a character reference.  The character reference has to be someone who is not a member of the family for obvious reasons. Many Landlords find that letting their property through a specialist letting agency like Key-Lets, gives a worry free monthly income. We strongly believe that by thoroughly vetting prospective tenants we avoid those costly mistakes made by landlords who do it themselves or use Agents that operate primarily in other markets. 

The absence of your brother from Scotland for so long means that the standard checks carried out by any reputable letting agent or landlord are either difficult to do.  If your brother is transferring income from South Africa to Scotland through the international banking system, a bank opinion from both his new and old bank will greatly assist matters.   We would however either ask for the initial six month's rent, plus surety deposit, to be paid in cash in advance and /or ask for a Guarantor to underwrite the lease.

Increasingly, we are finding a Guarantor is an important addition that strengthens the Landlords position in a lease.  Where a prospective tenant either has a minimal credit and/or letting history, or where there is a possibility that the Landlord may be put at extra risk, we seek a Guarantor for the lease.  A Guarantor is someone that is in full time employment in the UK, usually a member of the family, who will sign the lease as well as the tenant, and effectively underwrite all the obligations in the lease.  If your brother were able to meet these safeguards for our landlords then we would be happy to help him move home to Scotland.