Perils of Defaulting Landlords

This story is been run by the BBC, including a few case studies of blameless tennants evicted due to landlords in arrears.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7912025.stm

When asked for comment on why letting agencies credit check tennants, but not landlords, I think the response from Townends (a large agency in Surrey) sums up the problem:

“Credit checks are not something any agent would do on a client. Landlords sign a contract, and have to make sure everything runs smoothly, and we conform to a code of conduct.”

So no argument against credit checks on landlords, other than the fact that they dont already do it.  In this market, with more and more agents attempting to sign up landlords as their sales businesses collapse, it would be a brave agency who tried to credit check a landlord!  This is why legislation or at least changes to the code of practice are required as it will never happen without this change.

Agents are there to represent the interests of landlords and derive their income from the landlords, not the tennants.  Unless that can be changed through legislation, I dont see any way of improving the lot of private tennants.