What landlords can do to protect against tenant fraud
What landlords can do to protect against tenant fraud A survey of 1,000 UK landlords published in July 2026 found that 77% believe tenant fraud has become more common over the past three years.
Of those, 39% said it has become significantly more common and a further 38% reported a noticeable increase. One in ten landlords in the survey had experienced tenant fraud directly. The findings are a useful prompt for landlords to examine whether their current referencing and screening processes are giving them sufficient visibility of the people to whom they are granting access to their property.
What the fraud looks like
The most common form, reported in 34% of direct fraud cases in the survey, involved tenants deliberately failing to pay rent after providing misleading information during the application process. This is the category with the clearest prevention pathway: thorough income verification and credit referencing at the application stage significantly reduces the pool of applicants who could plausibly sustain this approach.
More serious were the cases where landlords had unknowingly allowed their property to be used for criminal activity, which affected 19% of those who had experienced fraud. Unauthorised subletting and rent-to-rent arrangements accounted for a further 10%. False employment or income information and undisclosed occupants each appeared in 9% of the most significant incidents reported.
The financial picture
Almost a quarter of landlords who experienced fraud said the most serious incident had cost them £5,000 or more. A further 22% reported losses of between £2,500 and £4,999. Only 2% said they had suffered no financial loss. Just under a third absorbed the loss without recovering money. Over a fifth resolved the matter through formal eviction proceedings, and 12% said their most significant case remained unresolved.
Most landlords who had experienced fraud reported a single incident in five years. However, nearly a third had faced multiple incidents, which suggests that once a landlord’s property or portfolio has been targeted, the risk of recurrence is real.
What landlords can do
The protection that is most consistently effective against the forms of fraud the data describes is thorough, consistent referencing at the application stage. Verifying the income an applicant declares, rather than taking it on assertion, requires payslips or tax returns for the self-employed, bank statements that show the pattern of income and outgoings, and direct employment verification with the named employer. Each of these steps is straightforward and adds a layer of documentary evidence that makes misleading information considerably harder to sustain.
The Renters’ Rights Act introduced anti-discrimination provisions from 1 May 2026 that prohibit landlords from applying blanket exclusions based on benefit status or the presence of children. Referencing processes must therefore be grounded in genuine, individually assessed affordability evidence rather than categorical exclusions. The standard that the law requires is the same standard that good fraud prevention demands: consider each applicant individually, document the decision, and base it on verified information rather than assumptions.
Right to Rent checks remain a legal requirement and provide a degree of identity verification as part of the standard onboarding process. From 1 October 2026, digital Right to Rent checks must use a registered provider where conducted electronically. Carrying these out properly, retaining the documentation, and being alert to documents that appear inconsistent or incomplete is a baseline that every landlord should have in place.
For landlords managing multiple properties or those who have experienced fraud before, working through a managing agent with robust referencing processes and access to professional tenant screening platforms adds a layer of systematic protection that self-managing alone cannot easily replicate.
Talk to our lettings team about protecting your property
This article was originally published by BriefYourMarket and is reproduced here with their permission.
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