GUARANTOR INFORMATION
If you are reading this you have probably been asked to act as a guarantor.
We want to take a couple of minutes to explain what we require from you and why. We get asked a lot by guarantors "why do you need so much information from me? I am only the guarantor!"
As a guarantor you will be expected to pay the rent if the tenant does not. In some cases, particularly if the tenant is a student you may unltimately be the person paying the rent anyway.
Guarantors are required when the tenant applicant is not strong enough in their own right to pass referencing so it is even more important that you pass referencing. The obligations upon the guarantor are not trivial so we do not treat your application as if it is. Some guarantors are not keen on providing all of the information that we ask for. You can choose to decline to act as a guarantor, however, hopefully you will read on and understand why the information that we request is essential.
WHY SO MUCH INFORMATION?
The fact is, we live in a world where identity theft and online scams are becoming more and more common.
Our clients will be entrusting you with their property and need the peace of mind of knowing that you are who you say you are, that you have a proveable income or assets enabling you to pay the rent, and that you do not have a history of bad tenancies.
We ask for a little more information than some referencing agencies because we are more thorough. The only people that need worry about this are the bad guys that we aim to obstruct, frustrate and drive away. Luckily this is not most people.
Genuine applicants do not need to worry as the documents and information that we require are only difficult to provide if your application is not genuine.
ADDRESS PROOF
We need to see two documents to evidence your current address. We are quite stringent about this and insist on documents from official sources only including; HMRC documents, Council Tax Bill, Utility Bills, government correspondence. At least one of these must be dated within the last two months and at least one must be dated older than three months.
PROOF OF INCOME
In most cases this is quite simple, we require wage slips and bank statements. It is important that we can see the transations on your bank statement as we reconcile your wage slips with your bank statement. This requirement makes it much harder for fraudsters to get through our process.
If you are self employed then we can accept at tax returns, P60's combined with an accountants or bookkeepers reference.
INTERNET AND DATA SECURITY
We take your data security very seriously. Our site uses an SSL certificate (the little green padlock in your browser) to encrypt your data uploads so that they cannot be intercepted and read without the secret decryption key that resides only on our server.
Our server itself is hosted with UKFast, one the countries leading data centres and not with a budget provider. Our server undergoes regular security audits and "Whitehat (friendly) hacker attempts to protect your data.
We do not keep hold of your documents any longer than necessary. Shortly after your final report has been made available to your landlord for download your confiential documents are removed from our server."
BANK STATEMENTS
When you upload your bank statements it is important that the following criteria are met;
(a) Your name should be visible on the statement
(b) Your transactions should be clear and unobscured
(c) Your wages deposit exist in the transaction list
(d) Your current rent payments should be visible (if applicable)
(e) We require the latest three months statements
REFERENCES
We will be asking for references from your previous and current landlords. We will verify that they own the properties that you lived in and checking that there were no serious problems with your previous tenancies.
We will also request references from your employers to ensure stability and ongoing employment.
If you are self employed we may ask for a reference from your accountant or bookkeeper
All of these references are undertaken via a short online form that is emailed to them. The information that they provide is confidential and we will not disclose these details to anyone except your potential new landlord. We won't even disclose the details to you!
Need Help With Your Application?
If you experience any technical issues or simply need some advice regarding the provision of the required documents please do give our friendly and helpful staff a call. We will be happy to help.
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