28 Jul 26
Contributed article from Des Taylor
The standard practice of offering viewings to prospective tenants before carrying out any meaningful qualification creates significant inefficiencies and, in some cases, genuine risk.
A structured pre-qualification process, one that assesses whether the applicant is in a position to meet referencing requirements, establishes their employment status, their previous landlord history, and their next of kin details, and obtains their consent to reference, should precede any viewing appointment.
There is no reason to reveal the full address of a property to someone who has not been through that process.
There is equally no reason why a landlord should not be present when applicants are being assessed, at the viewing or at the qualification stage.
The question that should drive the process is simple: before I invest time in showing this person a property, do I have reasonable grounds to believe they will pass screening and be in a position to proceed?
If the answer is uncertain, the viewing should wait.
This approach protects landlords from wasted time and from the risk of placing a tenant who should not have been placed.
