Credit checks ‘can help landlords’

Landlords can help avoid rental arrears by doing their homework on prospective tenants, an expert has said.

Chairman of the Residential Landlords Association Alan Ward advised that there are various measures a property investor can undertake to reduce the chances that they will have a problem of non-payment.

“In the first instance you can use tenant referencing and credit checks to see if people are capable of paying,” he said.

However, Mr Ward added, this is not watertight as circumstances can change, such as tenants losing a job, with the future solution possibly depending on good communication between both parties as they work out a deal to solve the problem.

Mr Ward’s comments came in the wake of the release of figures by the National Landlords’ Association last week, showing that 21 per cent of investors suffered from rental arrears in the second quarter of 2010.

This tally was lower than in the first three months of the year, when it was 24.5 per cent.