In short: Letting fraud costs UK landlords millions a year across three fronts: doctored tenant references, properties rented for criminal use, and fake letting agents. Nine practical checks stop almost all of it.

Updated 29 September 2026

The key facts

  • Over 5,000 rental fraud reports in 2024, with £9m of reported victim losses, per National Fraud Intelligence Bureau figures.
  • Up to £63m a year is the Home Office's modelled estimate of the true cost, beyond what gets reported.
  • Client Money Protection is mandatory. Any agent holding your rent or deposits must belong to a CMP scheme and display a current certificate.
  • Open Banking data cannot be doctored. Bank-sourced income verification defeats the fake PDF payslips and statements that fool document checks.

Fraud is an increasing problem for landlords and tenants alike, and its impact, both financial and legal, can be devastating. For landlords the main risks today are referencing fraud, fraudulent letting agents, and properties let for criminal activity. As fraudsters get more sophisticated, so do the checks, and Hello Neighbour uses modern technology to run them. This guide sets out the risks, the red flags and the practical steps that keep you safe; for even more depth, Suzanne Smith's guide at The Independent Landlord to protecting buy-to-lets from property fraud is worth a read. Tenants face the mirror-image risk, and our guide to spotting a fraudulent landlord covers that side.

What are the three main types of letting fraud?

Referencing fraud, letting for criminal activity, and fake letting agents account for the bulk of what landlords face.

Tenant application and referencing fraud

Applicants submit doctored payslips, fake bank statements, false ID, invented employers or friendly "references" to hide a poor credit and renting history. The sophistication is rising: convincing fake documents can be bought online or built in Photoshop, and AI keeps improving them.

Letting for criminal activity

Fraudsters use fake identities or front landlords to rent properties for illegal HMOs, people trafficking or cannabis farming. The landlord carries the clean-up cost and, in some cases, legal exposure.

Fake letting agents

Some scammers lift photos and descriptions from real listings and repost them cheaply on free-to-list sites; others clone a legitimate agent's website with a subtly different domain. Tenants are the usual target, but a landlord who hands keys to a fake agent can find the deposit unprotected and the rent never forwarded. If you find one of our listings copied elsewhere, report a suspicious listing to us.

What does letting fraud actually cost?

£9m of reported victim losses across more than 5,000 reports in 2024, according to National Fraud Intelligence Bureau figures, and the Home Office's modelled estimate of the true scale, beyond what gets reported, runs as high as £63m a year.

How can landlords prevent referencing fraud?

Start with a suspicious mindset: if it is too good to be true, it probably is, and if an applicant avoids questions or does things out of the ordinary, there is a reason. Technology works for both sides, so use it to unpick carefully constructed frauds as energetically as fraudsters use it to build them.

1. Run proper pre-qualification checks. They filter out applicants who would never fit the letting criteria and start the information trail. A lie gets harder to sustain as more detail is collected.

2. Always insist on a viewing. Face to face with your prospective tenant is hard to beat. If you cannot do it, plenty of letting professionals can.

3. Use professional referencing with Open Banking. PDF bank statements are too easy to fake. Open Banking takes a read-only snapshot of the applicant's real transactions, verifying income and rent payments with data that cannot be manipulated. Some genuine tenants have privacy qualms, but professional fraudsters always refuse.

4. Verify documents professionally. Reference providers use technology that examines a document's editing history, fonts, production software and metadata against millions of genuine documents. This is not a check you can do by eye.

5. Take the previous landlord's reference, not just the current one. A current landlord might say anything to move a bad tenant on; the previous landlord has no such incentive. Verify the referee actually is a landlord and not a friend.

6. Research your applicants. Search your shortlist online and on social media. A digital footprint, or the lack of one, can be telling.

7. Trust your instincts, backed by data. Someone should meet every applicant in person before you agree to let, but support the gut feeling with broad checks.

8. Never be rushed. Be wary of applicants desperate to move in without viewing, or offering months of rent upfront to bypass checks.

9. Plan an early property visit. Telling tenants they will get a maintenance check two weeks after move-in is a powerful disincentive for fraudsters, and legitimate tenants welcome it. Keep visits at least six-monthly after that.

How do you check a letting agent is legitimate?

Verify the company, the money protection and the fee transparency before handing over keys, because all three are checkable in minutes.

Search the agent's name and address for red flags, and confirm the website domain matches what Google shows. Check the registered company details against the Companies House register, which is free, and look at the directors while you are there. Review the contact details: professional firms use company email addresses and office lines, so a generic email or personal mobile alone should prompt further checks. Spot-check their listings, since fraudsters frequently copy photos from genuine adverts or use stock interiors that do not match the property. Confirm redress and Client Money Protection: CMP membership is legally required for agents holding client money, the certificate should be linked from their website, and you can cross-check it with the scheme along with membership of The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme. Finally, check their fees are published, because the law requires it, and missing pricing should raise immediate questions.

How does Hello Neighbour protect landlords?

Pre-qualification questions run automatically before any viewing is granted on a managed property, and our viewing professionals are briefed regularly on the frauds being reported across the market.

Our professional referencing includes document fraud detection, Open Banking income verification and comprehensive credit assessment, with everything on the prospective tenant collected in one place for easy comparison. If you are self-managing, our guide to finding a tenant yourself safely walks through the same checks.

This guide is general information for landlords in England, not legal advice.

Fraud is getting smarter, and so are the checks. If you would like a second opinion on a tenant, an agent or a situation, get in touch on 020 8138 8848 or at lettings@hello-neighbour.com. See how Get Rented Pro screens tenants.