According to recent research conducted by Goodlord, more than half of fraudulent tenancy applications involve fake payslips. Their research involved the analysis of more than 300,000 tenancy applications from 2022. They found that only 1 in 1,000 applications were fraudulent with 54% involving fake payslips.  

Goodlord’s Managing Director, Blake Richmond, advises real-estate agents to keep up-to-date with the latest technological tools to deal with fraud. He says: “The use of Open Banking, AI-based ID tools, and credit referencing software are incredibly effective at picking up this kind of fraud…” 

It is a requirement for tenants to provide evidence of their employment status and income. This is essential information for letting agents and property owners as they will be able to determine whether the prospective tenant will be able to afford the rent. For those tenants who are unable to afford it, they would be given the option to provide a guarantor.  

Making use of high quality technology would be the best solution as it could be used to accurately identify fraudulent applications. Many estate agent companies are not up-to-date with the latest technology – it is important that estate agents and property owners do their research and invest in sophisticated tools and technology to help minimise the risk of fraudulent tenant applications as they will no longer be able to rely on document reviews only.  

T +44 (0)203 488 1488 

E: info@ladybirdliving.co.uk  

W: https://www.ladybirdliving.co.uk/