Know who you’re handing the keys to.
Reference, afford and guarantee in one place.
Letting to the wrong tenant is the most expensive mistake a landlord can make. Check the rent against their income, capture the references that matter, and — when you need one — put a proper, fair guarantee behind the tenancy. All kept together, against the property.
UK-built, UK-onlyNo black-box scoreFree tools, no card
Referencing summary
Tenant + guarantor
Affordability
Income 32× rent
Right to Rent
Verified
Previous landlord
Reference received
Guarantor
Deed signed · 38× rent
Illustrative summary — your records, your decision
What referencing should do
Three checks that decide the let
Not a mysterious score — the three things that actually tell you whether the rent will be paid, and what to do when the answer is “not on income alone”.
Reference the tenant
Capture identity, right to rent, income and previous-landlord references against the tenancy — so the person moving in has actually been checked, not just chosen.
- Right to Rent (Immigration Act 2014)
- Income & employment evidence
- Previous-landlord reference
Check affordability
The sector rule of thumb is annual income of around 30× the monthly rent for a tenant. Our free calculator does the maths and flags where a guarantor is needed.
- 30× monthly rent for tenants
- 36× for a guarantor (they pay on top of their own rent)
- Clear pass / borderline / needs-guarantor signal
Capture a guarantor
When affordability falls short, generate a proper rent guarantee — Guarantee Agreement before the tenancy, Deed of Guarantee after — with a liability cap and the s.16N death clause built in.
- Guarantee or Deed, picked for you
- Liability cap in months of rent
- s.16N Housing Act 1988 (RRA 2025)
Why it matters
The cheapest risk control a landlord has
A tenancy is the only part of a landlord’s business where you hand a stranger an asset worth hundreds of thousands of pounds and then hope. Referencing is how you turn that hope into a decision. And the maths is lopsided: a thorough check costs you minutes, while a single bad let costs months — void periods with no rent, arrears you may never recover, and, since Section 21 was abolished, a possession process that now runs through the courts on specific grounds rather than a simple notice. The upfront check has never mattered more.
Good referencing is not one number. It is three honest questions. Can they afford it — measured against the long-standing rule of thumb that annual income should be around 30 times the monthly rent, so the rent is a manageable slice of what they earn rather than all of it? Are they who they say they are, and do they have the legal right to rent, which is a duty on you under the Immigration Act 2014, not an optional extra? And how have they behaved as a tenant before — the previous-landlord reference that a credit score will never show you? A clean credit file and a history of late rent and damage can belong to the same person.
When the tenant does not clear affordability on their own, a guarantor is the usual answer — but only if it is done properly. A guarantor pays the rent on top of their own housing costs, so they should clear a higher bar, commonly around 36 times the monthly rent. And a guarantee is a serious commitment for the person signing: it should cap their liability, be the right legal form for the timing (a simple agreement before the tenancy, a witnessed deed after), and reflect the new section 16N protection that ends a guarantor’s liability for rent falling due after a tenant’s death. A name on a form that has never been affordability-checked, in a document the guarantor never really understood, is a safety net with a hole in it.
The last piece is keeping it together. A reference in your inbox, an affordability sum on the back of an envelope and a guarantee in a drawer are three things that go missing at exactly the moment you need them. LetCompliance keeps the whole picture — checks, affordability, the signed guarantee — against the property, so the day a tenancy goes wrong you are not reconstructing what you did from memory. You are opening one file and exporting it.
30× / 36×
income rule for tenant / guarantor
Months
to regain possession via the courts now
One file
checks + guarantee, export court-ready
How it works
From applicant to a decision you can defend
Not three separate tools bolted together — one thread that runs from the first application to a signed, evidenced let.
- 1
Everything attaches to the property
The applicant, their identity and income evidence, the previous-landlord reference and any guarantee all hang off the tenancy record — not your inbox, a WhatsApp thread and a folder of PDFs. When you come back to it in six months, it is all still there, in one place.
- 2
The affordability call is made for you
As soon as you have the rent and the tenant’s income, the income-to-rent ratio is worked out and flagged — clear pass, borderline, or “needs a guarantor”. No staring at two numbers wondering if 28× is close enough; the threshold is applied consistently every time.
- 3
Back a borderline let, properly
Where a guarantor is needed, generate the right document — a Guarantee Agreement before the tenancy or a Deed of Guarantee after — send it to sign, and store the executed copy against the tenancy. The guarantor’s own affordability sits beside it, so the safety net is real, not nominal.
- 4
Decide with the whole picture, evidenced
You approve with every check in front of you and the decision logged. If arrears ever reach a tribunal, the affordability, the references and the signed guarantee export as one dated, court-ready pack — the difference between “I think we checked” and “here is the file”.
Where we stand
Honest referencing, on both sides
A good let is fair to the landlord and the person signing. We built this the way we’d want to be treated on either end of it.
No black-box “score”
Plenty of products hand you a single number and ask you to trust it. We don’t. You see the actual checks — the income ratio, the right-to-rent result, the previous-landlord reference — laid out, and you make the call. Referencing should make you better informed, not quietly make the decision for you behind a percentage you can’t question.
Fair on the guarantor too
A guarantee is a real, sometimes frightening commitment for the person signing it. Our wording caps their liability in months of rent, reflects the section 16N protection after a tenant’s death, and tells them in plain English to take their own advice. People honour agreements they actually understood — and a guarantee a court will enforce is worth more than one designed to intimidate.
You stay in control of the data
It is your tenancy and your records, full stop. Everything you capture lives against the property in your own account, never sold on or pooled into someone else’s scoring model, and it exports as a clean, dated, court-ready pack the moment you need it. Built in the UK, for UK law, hosted in the UK.
UK-built · Founder-led · GOV.UK-cited
Built by landlords, for landlords, from the GOV.UK source up.
"I'm a UK landlord myself, and we built LetCompliance for people like us: one login for the whole let, from advert to rent to compliance, with every check taken straight from primary GOV.UK guidance, never recycled, and shaped by what landlords actually ask us for."
FAQ
Common questions
What income should a tenant have to pass referencing?
The common UK rule of thumb is annual income of around 30 times the monthly rent — so for £1,000 a month, roughly £30,000 a year. It is a guideline, not a legal threshold: some landlords accept savings, benefits or a partner’s income, and some agents use 2.5× monthly net instead. Our free affordability calculator runs the figure and tells you whether the tenant passes, is borderline, or needs a guarantor.
How much should a guarantor earn?
A guarantor is usually held to a higher bar than a tenant — commonly around 36 times the monthly rent in annual income — because they have to cover the rent on top of their own housing costs. The exact multiple is your choice; what matters is that the guarantor is genuinely affordability-checked, not just named on a form.
Do I need a guarantor or can I just reference the tenant?
If the tenant passes affordability and referencing comfortably on their own, you may not need a guarantor at all. A guarantor is most useful where the tenant’s income falls short of the rule of thumb, where they are a student or first jobber, or where they cannot show a UK rental history. The affordability check is the fastest way to know which situation you are in.
What is the difference between a Guarantee Agreement and a Deed of Guarantee?
A simple Guarantee Agreement is binding without a witness only when it is signed before or at the start of the tenancy — the grant of the tenancy is the consideration. Once the tenancy has started there is no fresh consideration, so the guarantee must be made by deed, which has to be signed in the physical presence of an independent witness. Our free guarantor tool picks the right form from the tenancy start date.
Is a guarantor liable after the tenant dies?
No. Section 16N of the Housing Act 1988, inserted by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, means a guarantor is not liable for rent that falls due after the tenant’s death. Our guarantee wording reflects this so you are not relying on a clause a court would strike out. The guarantor remains liable for sums that accrued before the death, up to the agreed cap.
Do you run a credit check?
Our focus is on the evidence that actually decides the let — right to rent, affordability, income and previous-landlord references — captured against the tenancy in one place. Where a deeper credit or referencing report is needed, you can attach it alongside, so the full picture lives in one record rather than in a separate provider’s portal.
Last reviewed 19 June 2026
Let to the right tenant. Back it properly.
Run the affordability check, reference what matters, and put a fair guarantee behind the tenancy — all in one record you can rely on later.