How to Create a New Tenant Referencing Report Online

Start here: For the full workflow, see Referencing Manual.

To create a new referencing report, navigate to Tenancy Builder and click on “Referencing” in the sidebar.

Credits

Each report costs 900 credits.

If you don’t have enough credits, a message will appear prompting you to purchase more, and the New Report button will not be available.

Add New

With sufficient credits, click the New Report button at the top right.

Your Details

Your first name, last name, and email will be auto-filled, but you can change these if you wish.

The email address entered will receive notifications when the report is ready to download or if there are issues. This should be your email address. Please also check your spam/junk folders.

Use Applicant

If you have an applicant who submitted an online application, click the Add from applicants dropdown, then search for and select the applicant to enter their details. You can also view guarantors for applicants, where applicable. Applicants and guarantors are indicated by “(applicant)” or “(guarantor)” next to their names.

All the details listed below (tenancy details, names, addresses, etc.) will be auto-filled.

If you don’t see the applicant, there are a couple of possible reasons:

• It is most likely that the applicant has entered one or more overseas (non-UK) addresses. Applicants will only appear in the dropdown if all entered addresses are in the UK. This is because our referencing system (and most referencing services) cannot process overseas addresses when checking prospective tenants.
• Alternatively, the applicant may not have submitted the form yet. You can check this by viewing the applicant’s record, which will indicate whether the form has been submitted.

Please check the auto-filled details carefully, as the system can occasionally make mistakes. If you notice any issues, please report them.

Proposed Tenancy Details

Start typing the proposed tenancy address in the box provided, or enter a postcode. As you type, you can choose the full address from the list.

If the property is a flat, but it doesn’t appear in the address list, you can manually add a flat number in the “Flat” field.

This address is the proposed tenancy address and not the applicant’s address.

Proposed Rent (PCM)

Enter the proposed monthly rental amount (if the rent is weekly, convert it to a monthly amount).

Enter numbers only.

Applicant Details - Name

Enter the full name of the proposed tenant.

Date of Birth

Using the selection boxes, enter the proposed tenant’s date of birth.

Adverse Records

Has the applicant informed you of any adverse records (e.g., county court judgments or bankruptcy)?

This question should have been asked of the applicant via a suitable application form.

Select Yes or No (default is No).

Applicant’s Current Address

Start typing the address or postcode and choose the applicant’s current address from the list.

The system will only work and locate an applicant if the address is on the Royal Mail address list for the UK.

Overseas addresses cannot be processed by the referencing system. Enter the applicant’s actual current UK address and the period of residence.

How long at current address?

Using the dropdown, select the years and months at the current address.

Previous Address 1

Where the applicant has lived at their current address for less than three years, enter a previous UK address. If their previous address was overseas, or they have no other UK address and the form will not let you continue, the credit bureau won't be able to produce a report. The report can assess only the UK information available with a minimum of three years' history, so consider a guarantor, supplementary identity, income, affordability, and independently verified landlord checks where the UK history is limited.

At most, only two addresses are required.

Confirmation

Confirm the statement by checking the box and clicking Submit.

The data will be sent to the credit bureau, where a report will be produced.

After Submitting

After submission, you will be redirected to the references list and, almost immediately, the status to the right of the record should turn orange to “In progress”.

The report should be ready in most cases within a few seconds, but please allow a couple of minutes. After that, the progress indicator will show “Completed” in green. The report can be downloaded by clicking the green Completed notification or by clicking Download from the Actions button in the referencing list.

If you don’t see the orange “In progress” status, try refreshing the page. If it’s still blank (no status showing), that indicates there was a problem submitting the data.

Also, if the in-progress status remains for more than five minutes and you’ve refreshed the page, that too indicates a problem.

If you encounter a problem, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. Optionally, please include consent to access your account in your message, as this may help us diagnose the issue more quickly.