There is no sure-fire formula to ensure you find a perfect tenant for your property rental in Peterborough, Corby or Stamford… but it often pays to do your research. With demand for rented accommodation in the area, you may be able to fill a vacant property quickly. Hold on though. Use this checklist to discover how to choose a tenant who is reliable, straight-forward and hopefully, ‘just right’ for your needs.
Why not try out the following points next time you prepare to rent out your flat and question what to look for in a tenant:
1. Understand The Local Property Market
Find out which properties are in demand in your area before you buy, or research how your existing property could be marketed to appeal to a profitable market niche. Look into the basics of how to rent and make sure you know your landlord responsibilities when first getting started.
2. Focus On The Ideal Tenant
Research who lives in your chosen area, then consider the features, amenities and price points that fit your chosen demographic. Peterborough offers some of Cambridgeshire’s most affordable private rented accommodation, with an average monthly rent of £895 according to the ONS.
The city’s value and location attract commuters who seek great transport connections and parking, families who appreciate gardens and storage space, and students seeking properties with plenty of bathrooms and easy access to Peterborough’s university campuses.
3. Prepare Your Property
Ensure your property holds its own in marketing and viewings by refreshing the interior and exterior paintwork, tidying up the garden or patio, arranging furniture invitingly if you provide it, and cleaning thoroughly.
Keep your niche in mind when you stage your property too. For example, make the garden look appealing to families, while good WiFi, numerous bathrooms and a spacious kitchen often appeal to young professionals or students.
4. Engage Your Current Tenants
Maintaining good relationships with your current tenants can earn their goodwill and make viewings easier to manage. This can make them more likely to grant permission for viewings, and less likely to moan to prospective tenants. You should also find out what drew them to it, and what they love or hate. Use this insider info to fix the faults and promote any positives you may have overlooked.
5. Give Your Tenants A Reason To Stay
Think long-term when you onboard tenants – this can prevent void periods, the costs that come with every new tenancy, and the risks associated with finding new tenants. For instance, you may think about accepting pets to encourage a family to settle in, and ensuring you treat your tenants with respect, entering the property with due notice and being responsive to their concerns.
6. Vet Your Tenants
YoAnother important step of the tenant selection process is to run various checks when choosing a tenant, to ensure that they are law-abiding and can afford to pay the rent on time.
Checking a tenant’s credit history will help indicate if they are reliable at paying bills.
Landlords can do the tenant screening themselves, pay a credit and reference checking agency or ask their letting agent to provide this service. The cost isn’t much compared to the potential costs of taking on a tenant who breaches the tenancy agreement or doesn’t pay rent on time.
Examine credit checks, bank statements, landlord references and references from employers for:
Financial trouble or past bankruptcies
Credit score
Affordability
Proof of income
Stable work situation
Good character
If you’re letting to students or those renting for the first time, you may want to check that they have a guarantor for rent before proceeding too.
7. Don’t Discriminate Unlawfully
Well, this is a bit of a no-brainer really. Who wants to find themselves with a big court fine and bad reputation? So, in order to ensure you aren’t going against the law in your quest for how to find good tenants for your rental house then don’t discriminate. This is either on the basis of their gender, race, disability, sexuality or religion.
The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 has introduced new rules to make it illegal for landlords to discriminate against tenants who have children or receive benefits. This means you cannot use wording such as “No DSS” when marketing your property. Tenants should be assessed based on affordability, and you can’t discriminate against tenants receiving benefits it they can prove affordability.
8. Check ‘Right To Rent’
Landlords in England are obliged to make sure potential tenants from abroad are actually permitted to rent in this country in terms of their immigration status. This is by checking their documents, such as passport, visa and papers from the Home Office giving them permission to stay in the UK.
9. Choose A Financially Stable Tenant
As well as verifying their income and checking bank statements, you will also want to make sure that the tenant can actually afford to rent your flat. The formula is usually for the tenant to earn at least three times the price of the monthly rent.
Check their income with the employer, along with how long they’ve been employed at the company and what their attendance record is like. A tenant who changes job a lot is likely to move on from your tenancy quickly too. If they haven’t stuck at a job long that could mean they’ll have difficulty paying the rent in future.
You may be wondering how to find good tenants who are self-employed? Well, this can easily be checked via that individual’s accounts for the past three years, which can tell you if they can afford the rent or not.
10. Always Meet Your Tenants
Even if you’ve carried out all the background checks on a prospective tenant and they don’t indicate any problems, it’s still a good idea to meet. That way you can satisfy your gut instinct too.
It doesn’t do any harm to look them up on social media too. You’ll be able to tell if they’re at least sensible and not a complete party animal who is likely to have impromptu get-togethers in your property.
Meet them not just once, but at least twice – you’re letting your property to them, after all. No harm in being doubly sure you’re doing the right thing.
11. Ask Tenants Questions & Don’t Settle For Less
When you do meet up, ask questions to get to know the person. Why are they moving, for instance? Is it for a job, relationship, family etc? Find out if they’ve rented before and how that went. Do they think they’ll be staying long and what in particular were they looking for in rental accommodation? It’s not being nosey, just safeguarding your interests and another option of how to find good tenants.
Even if you have to meet up with three or four prospective tenants, don’t ever just settle when choosing a tenant. The right one will come along at some point – and hopefully you’ll have a stress-free tenant – landlord relationship.
12. Always Take A Deposit
Tenants expect to be asked for a deposit these days. And there are special rules around this. It must be handed over to one of the government’s selected tenancy deposit agencies. Landlords must let the tenant know which one and how to contact that agency, all within 30 days of receiving the deposit.
13. Make An Inventory
An inventory is a list of the furnishings and fittings in the property. This means beds, sofas, curtains, kitchen appliances etc. In other words, everything you’ve bought to furnish the flat with. You could also list the condition they are in and even take photographs of everything.
This is then listed in a folder – one for the tenant and one for yourself. This is checked by the tenant when they move in to make sure they agree. It’s checked again when they move out to ensure the condition of the furnishings is the same, minus wear and tear. If anything is broken or damaged then this can be deducted from the deposit, with the tenant’s agreement. If they refuse then the matter can be taken to the tenancy deposit agency panel to decide.
14. Consider Using An Agency
Some landlords have a full-time profession that takes up a lot of their time, or simply don’t fancy the trials of being a hands-on landlord. If that’s you, then why not let an agency like ourselves do the work of choosing a tenant for you? When it comes to knowing how to choose a tenant for your Cambridgeshire or Northamptonshire property, we have plenty of expertise to draw on.
15. How do I choose between two qualified tenants?
If you have more than one tenant application that qualifies, then you can prioritise the tenant based on the following:
Higher income
Longer/more stable employment
Lower debt to income
Better quality references
Higher credit score
Earliest moving in date
History of previous rental
Tenant Selection FAQs
What key legal checks must English landlords complete before approving a tenant under the Right to Rent rules?
Landlords must complete Right to Rent checks for all tenants aged 18 and above who will be living in the property. This involves checking their ID and immigration status. This can be done using a British or Irish passport, a UK immigration status document, Biometric Residence Permit or a share code issued from the Home Office.
How can landlords assess a tenant’s financial reliability beyond basic credit checks?
In addition to running a credit check, landlords can ask for 3-6 months of bank statements and payslips. Bank statements should indicate whether the tenant uses their overdraft regularly or has any outgoings that could be deemed as risky, like gambling.
What are the warning signs during tenant referencing that indicate a potential high-risk tenant?
The signs that a tenant could be high risk include difficulty in obtaining employer and landlord references (if they have rented before). Also, if there are any details that they have provided in the application that do not match the information provided on bank statements or job contracts, this is another warning sign.
How should landlords balance affordability with occupancy stability when choosing between multiple applicants?
When selecting a tenant, rental affordability is important but having a long-term tenant who meets affordability criteria can be more beneficial to you. Even if they are on a lower income than another applicant, if they express that they are looking to live in the property for a long period, this can reduce void periods. Look at their past living arrangements and job locations to see if they move around a lot and what their reason was for moving to identify whether they are more likely to settle.
What questions can a landlord legally ask during the tenant selection process without breaching the Equality Act 2010?
Landlords can ask questions regarding affordability, employment and rental history but cannot ask questions regarding whether they plan to have children or any characteristics protected under the Equality Act 2010. You must not ask questions about age, sex, race, religion, disability or sexual orientation.
We’ll take a portion of the rental income to cover our search and the ongoing property management. In return you will have peace of mind and a stress-free existence. Contact us today to start finding your next tenant.
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Wayne Beecham
Wayne is East Midland’s answer to property management. His hard work and high standards of service have gained him a fierce reputation within the regional lettings market. He knows what it takes to own and manage a profitable portfolio himself, because he is not only a successful investor and landlord, but co-founder and “hands on” managing director of Progressive Lets.
The team is really professional and time conscious. Had a smooth move in as well.
Rita Davey
Very good communication and friendly service, long may it continue. Thank you guys at Proggesive Lets!
Michael Wadham
Very friendly and professional service by Joe Mulhearn throughout the rental application process.
prince sarfo
Lovely timely response and assistance.
Very good
Keep it up
Olamide Ige
Wow!!! Zoe is an amazing soul. Very helpful and accommodating. The sky is the limit for her!!! She did an amazing job.
To Zoe, God bless you more and more ❤️
Grzybobranie
Been renting with them for over 3 years now and overall had a good experience. Of course over that amount of time there were a few issues here and there, which is pretty normal, but whenever I needed help Kieron was always easy to deal with, helpful and quick to respond. Communication was always str...
Aghogho Braimah
Progressive Lets is a very good and professional lettings agency. As a it was my first time letting a property, the company particularly the property manager Tam, was very patient and kind best believe I had too many questions to ask. I highly recommend Progressive Lets to anyone looking to rent ...
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