Despite typically having to pay for the privilege of having a background check conducted on themselves, most renters don’t perform the same due diligence on their potential landlord, leaving them at risk of renting from dodgy or criminal landlords.

The study, by London removals firm Kiwi Movers, also found that renters in London are the least likely to research a potential landlord, with the highly competitive property marketing cited as the number one reason for not doing so.

The study also found that only 20% of UK renters do any sort of check on their landlord before agreeing a tenancy and this figure drops to just 8% for London with almost half of renters in the capital saying they’re prepared to ‘take what they can get’.

 

Interestingly, also revealed was that more than a quarter of renters would prefer to rent from a female. According to the data, 44% of women would prefer to rent from another woman. Women are more likely than men to background check a landlord – 24% of women vs 15% of men

Other key points highlighted were:

• 1 in 5 believe renting from an agency meant they didn’t need to worry about landlord credentials or history.

 

• 18% of those who did find useful negative information on a landlord say it affected their decision to rent from that person.

 

• Renters in Liverpool most likely to check out a landlord online before renting.

 

Of those that have researched a potential landlord, 43% said they found some useful information, with 18% of those saying they found ‘negative’ information.

More than half (53%) of those that found negative information, in the form of a review, news article or details of legal issues, said it influenced their decision to rent from that person.

 

Just 8% of London residents do any kind of background check on their landlord, 62% below the national average of 20%. London residents are also the least likely to act on information about a potential landlord, with fewer than half (44%) of them saying negative the information had influenced a housing decision. In other words, the need to secure a property was greater than their need to rent with confidence.

 

Renters in Liverpool are most likely to carry out background checks on their landlord. A third of the city’s residents say they’ve performed a background check on a landlord before agreeing to move into a property.

Cities with renters most likely to check out a potential landlord

Case study:

Billie Gianfrancesco a PR manager has been renting in London since 2008 and is on her fifth rental property.

“In my experience, female landlords tend to work more closely with property managers or put a system in place whereby tenants can resolve any issues quickly without needing to bother or chase them.

I’ve found that male landlords prefer to try and resolve the issue themselves first. This often means repeat visits in person, which makes any tenant nervous, and a greater recurrence of botched DIY repairs. In one situation an upstairs bath was leaking, and our male landlord visited four times attempting to fix the issue himself. Because of this, the problem wasn’t resolved for over a month. I faced a similar issue a couple of years later with a female landlord – she called in a professional and the issue was resolved within a week

As a female tenant, I also prefer to deal with a female landlady as in my personal experience, I have at times felt intimidated by male landlords. This is particularly true when dealing with the inventory check out and deposit negotiations at the end of a tenancy.

I have in the past felt patronised by certain male landlords quoting ridiculous prices for repairs (for example £768 to replace a chipped slate tile on an outdoor porch, and £1,020 to replace a 20 year old alarm system with a brand new one, when multiple technicians had confirmed it was broken due to age) and as recently as this year, I was threatened by a male landlord for disagreeing with his deposit deduction demands above. I’ve never had this experience with a female landlord!

I’ve also had a great male landlord. It’s just that if I had a preference it would be a female.”