Making a decision

When you have made your decision

Ring or email the person you have selected and offer them the room. Make it clear that the offer is subject to satisfactory references. It is best to do this before referencing (particularly if using a paid-for service), as they may say they no longer want the room.

For this reason, also, you should not ring up your second choice and tell them the room has gone until you are sure that your first choice is definitely taking the room.

Try to be tactful and pleasant when speaking to those you have decided not to accept – you will want them to speak well of you when discussing you with other people (for example, the student accommodation office, if you let to students!).

References

You should always follow up references. Remember that this person will be living in your home and will have access to your personal possessions when you are not there. If there is anything bad to be found out, you want to find this out before they move in.

Many lodger landlords never carry out any formal referencing, trusting on their ‘gut feeling’ to spot a problem lodger.  In many cases, this will be fine.  However, remember that con men succeed because they are persuasive.  Can you risk it?

Your main concerns will be whether they will pay the rent and whether they will be responsible when looking after their room.

Nothing can absolutely guarantee this. The taking and checking of references will help to reduce the risk, though. There are three main types of reference:

• Financial – such as an employer or their bank
• Personal – a responsible person who has known the applicant for at least three years
• A previous landlord – to find out why they left

Because it is so easy for people to make things up, it is best to assume, for the purpose of the checking exercise, that everything you have been told is untrue until verified independently.

In particular, do not trust a letter of recommendation handed to you. It might have been written by a friend or even the applicant himself!

Double-check all contact details. This can be done for example by looking up employers’ details in relevant reference books (in the past we used to use Yellow Pages) or on the internet. Make sure that you are speaking to the real employer, and not one of your applicant’s friends.

If possible, ring up and speak to people given as references personally. They may say things on the phone that they would not put in writing.

However, they may not be telling you everything. For example, a current landlord may be desperate for the prospective lodger to leave! Listen to their tone of voice and whether they are careful in their use of words when answering your questions.

Overall, perhaps the employer is the most important, as the lodger’s salary will be paying your rent, and you need to be sure that they can afford it. Bank references are usually very bland and uninformative but are worth taking if only to check that the applicant actually has a bank account.

Other checks

Getting the applicant checked out by a credit reference agency is also recommended. You will find these on the internet, for example, Experian’s tenant checking service, or Tenant Verify from the LandlordZone web-site (www.tenantverify.co.uk). These services will tell you if there are any county court judgements outstanding, check creditworthiness, and validate their identity.

The Tenant Verify service has a delinquent tenant database.

You may also want to consider asking the applicant to obtain a criminal record check.  

If you are really suspicious of someone and suspect them of money laundering, you can also carry out a financial sanctions search.  There is an explanatory article about this aimed at landlords of tenancies on the Landlord Law Blog.

Guarantees

If you are worried about your prospective lodger’s ability to pay the rent, you can always ask for a guarantee.

These are more commonly used for tenancies, but there is no reason why someone should not guarantee a lodger’s rent. Make sure, however, that you check the guarantor in the same way that you would a tenant – there is no point in taking a guarantee from someone who has no job and no assets.