Before agreeing to a tenancy, landlords want to be confident that you can pay the rent.
To help them do this, they may review your credit report and identity check which contains a range of information obtained from a credit reference agency (CRA). CRAs hold certain information about most adults in the UK.
Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs)
We source the credit check data from Equifax which is one of three credit reference agencies (CRA) in the UK. The others are Experian and TransUnion.
The information is supplied by local councils, banks, credit cards, lenders, telecoms and utility companies to the credit reference agencies (CRA) who in turn supply it to the credit check supplier such as ourselves.
Most of the information held by the CRAs relates to how you have maintained your credit and service/utility accounts. It also includes details of your previous addresses and information from public sources such as the electoral roll, public records including county court judgments, and bankruptcy and insolvency data.
The information held by the CRAs is also used to verify the identity, age and residency of individuals, to identify and track fraud, to combat money laundering and to help recover payment of debts. Government bodies may also access this credit data to check that individuals are entitled to certain benefits and to recover unpaid taxes and similar debts.
Credit reference agencies are licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Inaccurate Credit File
If an individual thinks their credit file is inaccurate, they can raise their concerns with the relevant CRA. However, the problem may lie with the original lender or organisation that supplied the CRA with the information so they may need to contact them instead.
You can see more information on credit reference agencies, including how to correct inaccurate information, here:
https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/credit/
Electoral Register
Details of the individual and associates on the electoral register at the address will be included if there are any matches.
The Tenant Credit Check only shows details of people who are on the open (edited) register, not details of the full register. If a person has opted out of the public electoral register, they will not be shown on a tenant credit check.
You can find more details of the electoral register here:
https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/electoral-register/
Linked Addresses
The report will attempt to find addresses linked to the individual such as previous addresses.
Linked addresses are all the addresses that the individual or any financial associates have lived at and where they have taken out a credit agreement. Past and present addresses become linked when:
- One provides a company with current and previous address and they do a credit search against both of them.
- One tells a lender that one has moved, the next time they update your account information they will link the current and the old address
Linked address information remains on the credit report indefinitely.
