6 ms·

How about making it symmetrical and also give landlords access to a rogue renter database?

nerdponx 7y ago
As far as I know, in some cities they do already keep a tenant blacklist.
SOLAR_FIELDS 7y ago
In the USA they essentially already have this in the form of forcing prospective tenants to submit to a background check and being able to pull rental/eviction history. I would think that this is just correcting the information/power imbalance.
- mancerayder 7y ago
  They recently (June) made this illegal in NYC. Whether it's enforced is a different matter. Problem is with the laws generally favoring tenants here, there are litigious bad apples and no one wants a tenant who can game the system and get 6-12 months of free lodging because they know how. After 30 days, you have squatter rights which means the court system needs to evict you if you're naughty, and that can take a long time. On the flip side, if you as a tenant ended up in housing court and won (i.e. it wasn't your fault), you were in that database.
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 7y ago
    Interesting, although I will note for other readers that NYC and other large left-leaning cities are exceptions rather than the norm regarding tenant protections. Texas, where I live, for example, has much more landlord-friendly laws.
danso 7y ago
Renters are routinely backgrounded as a part of the process. FTA: > "Renters have to provide references from employers and previous landlords before a landlord hands over the keys to a new flat. So it is only fair that renters get the opportunity to check that a prospective landlord doesn't have a criminal record," said Dan Wilson Craw, director of Generation Rent, which campaigns on behalf of tenants.
tompccs 7y ago
Leaving aside the fact that rental markets already have a highly asymmetric power dynamic, landlords in the UK already do have a de-facto mechanism for assessing tenants in the form of landlord references. They can also perform various financial checks, such as employer references, or asking for a guarantor. On the other hand, I rent in London and do not even know the name of our landlord. He/she operates through various limited companies and an agent. I can infer it through Companies House but that option wouldn't have been available before we put down our holding deposit.
- chrisseaton 7y ago
  > Leaving aside the fact that rental markets already have a highly asymmetric power dynamic, landlords in the UK already do have a de-facto mechanism for assessing tenants in the form of landlord references. They can also perform various financial checks, such as employer references, or asking for a guarantor. These are just things they ask for though - there's no special legal power they have to ask for them - you could also ask for the same things from your prospective landlord if you wanted to, and you'd have the same information. They'd probably decline to provide them and refuse to rent to you, in the same way as you can decline to provide them and refuse to rent from them.
  - jogjayr 7y ago
    > They'd probably decline to provide them, in the same way as you can decline to provide them. The consequences of declining are very different for both parties. The landlord moves on to literally any other prospect because everyone else will provide that information. The tenant can move on to only slumlords, who will not insist on a credit/criminal background/reference check. Or they can be homeless.
    - mlurp 7y ago
      I think that's really more a function of what slant the market is currently in, ie, renter's or landlord's market. If there were a glut of apartments compared to renters, the desperateness would be reversed.
deleted 7y ago
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jogjayr 7y ago
Credit checks, criminal background check, employment history check, previous landlord reference are standard parts of a rental application. My landlord has tons of visibility into my finances and history with previous landlords. I know nothing about their books and only online reviews to tell me about their dealings with previous tenants.
morrbo 7y ago
You kind of get this already to be fair. Doing a credit check or lookup of any CCJs etc on potentisl tenants is standard procedure. It doesn't tell you if they're loud or will damage the property, but neither would this I guess.
ajross 7y ago
I don't know UK law, but eviction history is a public record in almost all of the US. Likewise the credit checks that are nearly universally required are a proxy for this sort of thing too. Basically: landlords already have this, in redundancy even. They aren't the aggrieved party here.
everybodyknows 7y ago
Here in California, counties maintain publicly accessible property records, indexed by street address. Corporate owners must register with the state, and the various state enforcement agencies present records indexed by name of violator on their own websites. Working through all the above steps manually is of course impractical for most renters. There may be a startup opportunity here -- a "badpads.com".
lleolin 7y ago
Isn't that just when they run my credit and check for past evictions. How much of a rogue renter can one be, and get away with it?
glenda 7y ago
Landlords will often perform a credit/background check on potential renters, so it seems like this exists to fix an existing information asymmetry.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
vkou 7y ago
The rogue renter database already exists, it's called a credit check, and a list of landlord references for your last three addresses, that you include in your application.

As far as I know, in some cities they do already keep a tenant blacklist.

In the USA they essentially already have this in the form of forcing prospective tenants to submit to a background check and being able to pull rental/eviction history. I would think that this is just correcting the information/power imbalance.

mancerayder 7y ago
They recently (June) made this illegal in NYC. Whether it's enforced is a different matter. Problem is with the laws generally favoring tenants here, there are litigious bad apples and no one wants a tenant who can game the system and get 6-12 months of free lodging because they know how. After 30 days, you have squatter rights which means the court system needs to evict you if you're naughty, and that can take a long time. On the flip side, if you as a tenant ended up in housing court and won (i.e. it wasn't your fault), you were in that database.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 7y ago
  Interesting, although I will note for other readers that NYC and other large left-leaning cities are exceptions rather than the norm regarding tenant protections. Texas, where I live, for example, has much more landlord-friendly laws.

danso 7y ago

Renters are routinely backgrounded as a part of the process. FTA: > "Renters have to provide references from employers and previous landlords before a landlord hands over the keys to a new flat. So it is only fair that renters get the opportunity to check that a prospective landlord doesn't have a criminal record," said Dan Wilson Craw, director of Generation Rent, which campaigns on behalf of tenants.

tompccs 7y ago

Leaving aside the fact that rental markets already have a highly asymmetric power dynamic, landlords in the UK already do have a de-facto mechanism for assessing tenants in the form of landlord references. They can also perform various financial checks, such as employer references, or asking for a guarantor. On the other hand, I rent in London and do not even know the name of our landlord. He/she operates through various limited companies and an agent. I can infer it through Companies House but that option wouldn't have been available before we put down our holding deposit.

chrisseaton 7y ago
> Leaving aside the fact that rental markets already have a highly asymmetric power dynamic, landlords in the UK already do have a de-facto mechanism for assessing tenants in the form of landlord references. They can also perform various financial checks, such as employer references, or asking for a guarantor. These are just things they ask for though - there's no special legal power they have to ask for them - you could also ask for the same things from your prospective landlord if you wanted to, and you'd have the same information. They'd probably decline to provide them and refuse to rent to you, in the same way as you can decline to provide them and refuse to rent from them.
- jogjayr 7y ago
  > They'd probably decline to provide them, in the same way as you can decline to provide them. The consequences of declining are very different for both parties. The landlord moves on to literally any other prospect because everyone else will provide that information. The tenant can move on to only slumlords, who will not insist on a credit/criminal background/reference check. Or they can be homeless.
  - mlurp 7y ago
    I think that's really more a function of what slant the market is currently in, ie, renter's or landlord's market. If there were a glut of apartments compared to renters, the desperateness would be reversed.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

jogjayr 7y ago

Credit checks, criminal background check, employment history check, previous landlord reference are standard parts of a rental application. My landlord has tons of visibility into my finances and history with previous landlords. I know nothing about their books and only online reviews to tell me about their dealings with previous tenants.

morrbo 7y ago

You kind of get this already to be fair. Doing a credit check or lookup of any CCJs etc on potentisl tenants is standard procedure. It doesn't tell you if they're loud or will damage the property, but neither would this I guess.

ajross 7y ago

I don't know UK law, but eviction history is a public record in almost all of the US. Likewise the credit checks that are nearly universally required are a proxy for this sort of thing too. Basically: landlords already have this, in redundancy even. They aren't the aggrieved party here.

everybodyknows 7y ago

Here in California, counties maintain publicly accessible property records, indexed by street address. Corporate owners must register with the state, and the various state enforcement agencies present records indexed by name of violator on their own websites. Working through all the above steps manually is of course impractical for most renters. There may be a startup opportunity here -- a "badpads.com".

lleolin 7y ago

Isn't that just when they run my credit and check for past evictions. How much of a rogue renter can one be, and get away with it?

glenda 7y ago

Landlords will often perform a credit/background check on potential renters, so it seems like this exists to fix an existing information asymmetry.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

vkou 7y ago

The rogue renter database already exists, it's called a credit check, and a list of landlord references for your last three addresses, that you include in your application.