How to spot tenant fraud: fake payslips, references and ID

A tenant fraud problem rarely looks like fraud. It looks like the best applicant you have seen all month: clean, polite, keen to move in quickly, payslips that show comfortably more than the rent, a glowing reference from a current landlord, a guarantor who answers on the first ring. Everything lines up. That is the point — a good forgery is designed to feel like a relief after three time-wasters.

We think about this a lot at LetCompliance, because tenant screening is where a let is won or lost. Get it right and the next twelve months look after themselves. Get it wrong and you inherit someone else's problem — arrears, a possession claim, and a court queue that in 2026 is longer than it has been in twenty years. This guide is the practical version of what we look for: the tells in a fake payslip, how a made-up reference falls apart, and the one habit that catches most of it.

What tenant fraud actually looks like

Rental fraud is not one thing. It is a handful of separate tricks, and an applicant in trouble may reach for more than one:

None of these needs a criminal mastermind. Most tenant fraud is ordinary people who cannot quite afford the place, papering over the gap. That does not make it safe — a tenant who lied to get in is a tenant who could not afford it honestly.

Fake payslips: the tells

A forged payslip is where most landlords are fooled, and it is also where a few minutes of attention pays off most. Look for:

One payslip proves nothing on its own. Ask for three consecutive months plus a matching bank statement showing the salary actually landing. Fabricating one document is easy; fabricating three that agree with a bank feed is where fraud usually collapses.

References: verify the source, not just the words

The wording of a reference tells you almost nothing — anyone can write "excellent tenant, always paid on time." What matters is who you are really speaking to.

Employer references. Never call the number printed on the reference itself. Find the company independently — its own website, or Companies House — and call the main switchboard, then ask for the named manager. A fake reference falls apart the moment you reach a real HR department that has never heard of the applicant.

Previous-landlord references. This is the one to treat with real suspicion, and it catches out even experienced landlords. A tenant's current landlord has a motive to give a glowing reference: they want the tenant gone. The reference that reads best can be the one written by someone desperate to pass a problem on. Where you can, ask for the landlord before last as well — that person has no reason to lie. And check the property genuinely exists and is genuinely let by the person referencing it.

Guarantors. A guarantor is only worth having if they could actually pay. Reference the guarantor as seriously as the tenant — their income, their own housing costs — and make sure they have signed a proper deed of guarantee knowingly, not had their name added without them realising.

ID and Right to Rent

In England you are legally required to carry out a Right to Rent check→ before the tenancy begins — confirming every adult occupier has the right to rent in the UK. It is a legal duty in its own right, but done properly it is also your best defence against someone renting under a borrowed identity.

Check the original document, not a photo sent by message. Confirm the photo matches the person in front of you, the dates are current, and — for digital checks — use the official GOV.UK online service rather than a screenshot the applicant provides. An identity that will not survive a face-to-face document check is one you want to find now, not after the keys have changed hands.

The habit that catches most of it: independent verification

If there is a single principle underneath all of the above, it is this: verify through a channel the applicant did not give you. The switchboard number you found yourself. The bank statement that has to agree with the payslip. The credit file the applicant cannot edit.

This is also why a proper, credit-backed reference is worth more than a stack of documents an applicant hands over. LetCompliance runs tenant referencing through a regulated UK credit reference agency — an affordability and credit check drawn from source data the tenant cannot forge, sitting alongside the identity and reference checks you do yourself. It is pay-per-check, so it suits a single let as much as a portfolio, and it is exactly the kind of independent signal a template payslip cannot fake. Screening well is not about distrusting people; it is about giving an honest applicant nothing to worry about and a dishonest one nowhere to hide.

A five-minute anti-fraud checklist

Before you offer a tenancy, confirm you have:

If two or more of these will not line up, slow down. The pressure to "decide today or I'll take the other flat" is itself one of the oldest tells.

If you suspect — or discover — fraud

If something does not add up before the tenancy starts, you are entitled to decline the application; you do not have to explain a referencing decision, provided you apply your criteria consistently and lawfully (never on grounds protected by the Equality Act). Keep your reasons factual and on file.

Knowingly giving false information to obtain a tenancy can amount to fraud by false representation under the Fraud Act 2006. In practice prosecutions are rare, but the civil position is what protects you: a tenancy obtained by deception, and the arrears that usually follow, strengthen your position if you later need possession — provided you documented what you were told and what you found. This is where keeping a clean paper trail of every check, reference and message earns its keep.

The honest summary: you will not catch every fraud, and you should not try to turn screening into interrogation. But the checks above catch the great majority, cost very little, and turn "the best applicant I've seen all month" back into a claim you can actually test.