Tenancy · Free · no signup
Referencing pre-checkfree, in seconds
Check an applicant against the affordability and address-history rules referencing providers use, before you pay for the reference. Shows whether they are likely to pass, be referred, or need a guarantor.
Live calculator
Updates instantly · nothing leaves your browser
Not legal or tax advice
The tenancy
The applicant
Likely to be referred — fixable
What would hold it up:
- Income is under the usual threshold and there is no guarantor
Affordability
- Monthly rent
- £1,200
- Income usually required (30× rent)
- £36,000
- Applicant income
- £32,000
- Multiple achieved
- 26.7× monthly rent
- Shortfall
- £4,000
The bit that quietly costs you days
A credit check comes back in minutes only when the applicant's details match their credit file. Under three years at the current address means the file still carries the previous one, so collect the full three-year history up front, written exactly as it appears on their bank statements. A missing flat number or an old postcode is enough to send an instant check into a manual review.
- Thresholds vary by provider — 30× monthly rent is the common bar, some use 2.5× annual.
- A referral is not a refusal: a guarantor or rent in advance often resolves it, subject to the rules that apply to you.
- Screen on affordability and evidence, never on protected characteristics — the Equality Act applies to letting decisions.
- An estimate, not a decision. Only the reference itself decides.
Prefer to watch?
See how it works
A screen tour of the whole let, end to end. No sign-up, no sales call. Just press play.
- Add a property and watch the 0–100 compliance score appear
- Track rent and arrears, and draft a Section 8 notice
- Open the passwordless tenant portal and prepare SA105 tax
Free tool only
LetCompliance is all-in-one UK landlord software — advertise, take applications, collect rent, track compliance (0–100 score) and prepare tax, instead of juggling spreadsheets and separate tools. Gas Safety, EICR, EPC, deposits, Right to Rent and court-ready evidence included. From £14.99 a month · 14-day free trial
What actually decides whether a reference passes
Referencing failures feel random to landlords because the two things that cause them are invisible from the outside. The first is affordability, which is arithmetic you can do before you pay. The second is identity matching, which nobody explains, and which is why an "instant" check sometimes takes four days. Checking both before you order the reference costs nothing and removes most of the surprises.
Affordability first. Most UK referencing providers want gross annual income of around thirty times the monthly rent, which is the same as two and a half times the annual rent. On a £1,200 rent that is roughly £36,000. Below the threshold the applicant is usually not refused outright, they are referred, which means the provider asks for a guarantor or for rent in advance. Guarantors are typically held to a higher bar again, often thirty-six times the monthly rent, because they are covering the rent on top of their own housing costs.
Identity matching is the one that quietly costs days. A credit check returns in minutes only when the applicant’s details line up with what the credit reference agency already holds. That agency holds an address history. If your applicant moved eight months ago and you supply only their current address, the file does not match, the automated search cannot complete, and the case drops into a manual review that a person has to clear. Collect three full years of address history, written exactly as it appears on their bank statements, and this problem largely disappears.
Small discrepancies are enough to break the match. A missing flat number, an old postcode, an address they lived at but never registered anything to, a date of birth with the day and month transposed. None of these look like errors on the form. All of them can stop the automatic search. This is also why entering the property being let into the applicant’s current address field is such an expensive slip: it guarantees a mismatch.
A referral is not a rejection, and it is worth saying plainly that screening must stay on financial ground. Assess affordability, credit history and the evidence in front of you. Do not screen on protected characteristics: the Equality Act 2010 applies to letting decisions, and blanket policies such as refusing anyone in receipt of benefits have been found unlawfully discriminatory. Where affordability is genuinely short, a guarantor is the normal answer, and with Section 21 abolished the quality of that decision matters more than it used to.
How to check whether your applicant will pass referencing
Test an applicant against the affordability and address-history rules referencing providers use, before paying for a reference.
- 1
Enter the monthly rent
The threshold is set against the rent for the whole property, not per tenant. For a joint tenancy, combine the applicants’ incomes against the full rent.
- 2
Enter the applicant’s gross annual income
Gross, before tax, and evidenced. Payslips or an employment contract for employed applicants, or two to three years of accounts or an SA302 for the self-employed.
- 3
Enter how long they have lived at their current address
This is the step landlords skip. Under three years means the credit file still holds the previous address, and you will need to supply it.
- 4
Flag any adverse credit and any guarantor
A CCJ, default, IVA or bankruptcy still showing on file changes the outcome. So does a guarantor, who is usually assessed at a higher income multiple.
- 5
Fix what the result flags, then order the reference
Collect the missing address history, line up a guarantor, or gather the income evidence first. Ordering a reference you already know will be referred just costs you the fee and the delay.
Frequently asked questions
What income do tenants need to pass referencing?
Commonly gross annual income of about thirty times the monthly rent, which is two and a half times the annual rent. Providers vary, and some use a slightly different multiple, so treat it as the usual bar rather than a legal rule.
Why is my "instant" credit check taking days?
Almost always an identity match failure. The search only completes automatically when the details supplied line up with the credit file, and the most common cause is incomplete address history when the applicant has moved within the last three years. It then goes to a manual review, which a person has to clear.
How much income does a guarantor need?
Typically thirty-six times the monthly rent, higher than the tenant’s own threshold, because the guarantor is covering this rent on top of their own housing costs. Most providers also require the guarantor to be UK-based.
Does a failed reference mean I cannot let to them?
No. A referral or a fail is information, not a prohibition. You can accept the applicant with a guarantor, or on other terms available to you. The decision remains yours, and so does the risk.
What if the applicant has a CCJ?
It will show and it will usually trigger a referral rather than an automatic refusal. Age matters: a satisfied CCJ from five years ago reads very differently from an unsatisfied one from last year. Ask for the context and the evidence.
Can I refuse someone on benefits?
Not as a blanket policy. Courts have found "No DSS" rules to be indirectly discriminatory under the Equality Act 2010. Assess the individual’s actual affordability, from whatever lawful income they have, and record your reasoning on financial grounds.
Same logic, every property
Run the numbers here. Track compliance in LetCompliance.
This calculator runs in your browser only. Inside LetCompliance the same statutory logic powers a 0–100 score per property, deadline reminders, and a court-ready evidence pack. 14-day free trial.
More free calculators