that's another urgent issue, I believe.
The current financial situation brings along unemployment and low salaries, so fewer people can afford renting a place. The market of rental property is overstock... But we still need tenants!
Would you let in a tenant with a bad credit history? What security measures would you take?

I wouldn't let any of my properties to tenants without a refernce. I don't think that many landlords check credit rating, but previous landlords references are a must. Occasionally they will not show a full picture, but if someone didn't pay their rent on time before, they are unlikely to change their habits. Apparently, many landlords in London were hit when so many City employees have lost teir jobs. I know that some letting agents can guaranty monthly rent even if property is unoccupied, but they charge as much as 50%.

As far as I know, there are companies and websites that help you get the tenant's references. You might want to check them out. Also, many letting agencies do this kind of work for the landlord, for a fee, of course.

Why would you want to let a property to someone with a bad history? You might as well just let them live in your property happily ever after! There is a hight risk that they will not pay rent and if they have nowhere to move, you may find it difficult to make them leave. Unless, of course, their circumstances changed since their poor rating and you have some sort of guarantee in the form of the ex-landlord reference or have smth else in place to protect your rent income.

I think FMNOD posed sort of a rhetorical question, wondering, if property owners would prefer to have their property unoccupied rather than occupied by unreliable tenants.
All in all, I do agree that it is better to avoid potential problems if there's an opportunity.

Konek, Solomon51, IvoLets,
thank you for your replies. Indeed, I do not plan to let a house to someone with bad credit history yet. I was just wondering what other people would do if such situation comes up.
I found your advice concerning references from former landlords and from various agencies very useful, thanks again.

In my view, now it's more important than ever before to be more careful with potential tenants. According to one of the mortgage company's recent survey, more than 30% of landlords never run any checks on tenants to be with more than 20% undertaking occasional assessments. Of course, no credit check will ever ensure you against possible rent arears, but look at it a preventative measure. I wonder, if perhaps, existing landlords could share their experience and tips on how to keep their tenants happy? For example, good communication between landlord and tenant could help to forsee and prevent some problems...

I've recently learnt that landlords are poorly protected against "bad" tenants; for instance, they have no right to harass the tenant if he/she is late with the payment, no right to remove tenant's possessions, no right to walk in and talk to the tenant without prior notification, etc. the only way to actually try to avoid problems is take preventative measures

Establishing trust could be one of those preventative measures. If tenant trusts his ladlord, he'd talk about his concerns (hopefully!) well before they become an issue. Let's say tenant runs into financial difficulty, rent could be re-negotiated for a short or longer period of time, other possible remedies could be looked into as well... maybe am too optimistic, but would like to think that both tenants and landlords would have a better ride if they get on with each other!

Hi guys!
I’d like to say the following thing, of course you are right that landlords are not properly protected by law against bad tenants and it’s truly so, a landlord is left northing but to take some preventive measures such as personal checks on the tenant or checks with the national tenancy database to check the record of the tenant. If you observe the violation of a tenancy contract you may go to the court. However legal prosecutions take landlord’s money and time and serve bad tenant's purpose. The eviction process is quite long (up to 4 weeks) and taxing and it can drain all the energy out of a landlord. So be precautious.

with best wishes