Finding the right tenant: Hello Neighbour’s guide to screening viewing requests

Finding the right tenant: Hello Neighbour’s guide to screening viewing requests

This guide is designed to help landlords screen viewing requests, so viewings work for both landlords and tenants, without putting suitable applicants off.

It draws on our experience letting over 3,000 properties and an analysis of 8,304 anonymised messages between landlords and tenants through our self-letting (DIY) platform.

For properties we manage, we go to great lengths to attract the right tenants and we want DIY landlords to do the same. We recommend landlords use professional photography, floor plans and video and all our DIY properties are listed on Rightmove and Zoopla. That includes Featured on Rightmove for the all-important first 7 days. As a result we get double the average number of viewing requests. On average we get 49 requests to view properties we list vs the average for properties on Rightmove of 22.

Why Hello Neighbour’s Get Listed Is the Smarter Way to Let Your Property

But it is also important not to waste time on tenants who are never going to be suitable. Screening viewing requests carefully to avoid wasted time is a key skill. It is also important not to fall foul of the legislation that protects tenants against discrimination and unfair behaviour, including the new rental discrimination rules in the Renters’ Rights Act.

We have also looked at how the approach to screening can impact the number of tenants who move through to a viewing. Asking lots of questions in a long list can dramatically reduce the number of tenants unnecessarily.

Asking the right questions in the right way will ensure you maximise the level of real demand for viewings.

If you have any questions, please do get in touch.

Legal Disclaimer

This document is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Housing law is complex and fact-specific. Whether a screening question is lawful depends on how it is framed, how it is applied, and whether it results in direct or indirect discrimination. Landlords and agents should seek independent legal advice before implementing screening policies. This guidance reflects the position in England at the time of writing.

What are Hello Neighbour landlords asking their prospective tenants?

Employment and income questions dominate pre-viewing screening (96%), followed by household size (84%) and move-in timing (81%).

Credit history and Right to Rent questions appear less frequently at enquiry stage, suggesting compliance checks are often deferred until later in the process when landlords take references.

What are the key questions landlords are asking prospective tenants?

Employment & Income (96%)

• What is your current work situation and income level?
• What is the combined monthly income of you and your co-tenants?
• What do you do for work?
• Are you employed or self-employed?
• What is your income?
• Do you receive benefits and if so are you working (or exempt from the benefits cap)?

This is the anchor question set.

Who Will Live There (84%)

• How many people are planning to live in this house and what’s their relationship?
• How many people will live at the property?
• Is it just yourself?
• What is the job title of the co-tenant(s)?

Almost always paired with affordability.

Move-In Timing (81%)

• What is your preferred move-in date?
• Is the date flexible?
• For how long are you looking to rent this house?

Operationally driven.

Pets/Smoking (75%)

Usually a single blunt question:

• Do you have pets or smoke?
• Have you ever had any County Court Judgements and if so, please provide details?
• Have you ever been evicted from a rented property?

Guarantor (72%)

• Would you need a guarantor?
• Do you have a UK guarantor?

References (20%)

• Are you able to provide a reference from your current landlord?

What do others suggest landlords ask?

Guidance from landlord education bodies such as the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) typically recommend going slightly further.

They often advise landlords to ask:

Employment Depth

• How long have you been in your current role?
• Are you on probation?
• If self-employed, how many years trading?

Rental History

• How long have you been at your current address?
• Why are you moving?
• Have you ever been evicted?

Affordability Ratio

Many independent landlords use: Annual income must be at least 30x monthly rent. 

Benefit Income

Landlord forums frequently discuss asking if any of the rent will be paid via Universal Credit. Post implementation of the Renters’ Rights Act on May 1^st this is now a legally sensitive area (see below).

What advice does The Independent Landlord give?

Suzanne Smith, The Independent Landlord, is always a great source of advice on all things letting. We suggest any landlord can learn a great deal from her website and new book, The Good Landlord Handbook. Her suggestions for questions are:

• How many adults would be living in the property, and please let me have the ages of the children.
• What is the relationship between the adults (eg a couple, family members (sister, parent), friends)?
• What is your occupation and the occupation of any adults who would be living there?
• How long would you plan to live in this property?
• What is your connection to [town]?
• Where abouts are you living now and why are you looking to move?
• What is the breed and age of your pet (if applicable)?
• Have you ever had any CCJs and if so, please provide details.
• Is the property for yourself? If not, explain why you are asking to view for someone else. Please do not apply if you are a rent to renter or another intermediary.

What are some of the legal risks when screening tenants?

Universal Credit & Benefits

Under court decisions and reinforced by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025:

• Blanket “No DSS” policies are unlawful.
• You cannot refuse viewings solely because someone receives Universal Credit.
• You cannot advertise excluding benefit recipients.

Landlords can ask about Universal Credit to assess total income, including benefits but they should not use benefit status as a filtering question or automatically treat benefit income as unacceptable. We recommend avoiding specific reference to benefits.

Families With Children

Blanket “no children” exclusions are prohibited. You may assess overcrowding, licensing limits and property suitability but you may not refuse a viewing because the applicant has children.

Protected Characteristics

Under the Equality Act 2010, landlords must not screen based on:

• Race or ethnicity
• Religion
• Sex
• Sexual orientation
• Disability
• Pregnancy
• Gender reassignment
• Age

This includes indirect discrimination such as neutral questions that disadvantage certain groups.

Nationality & Right to Rent

Right to Rent checks must be carried out properly and consistently. Asking “Are you British?” at enquiry stage is inappropriate and screening by nationality is unlawful.

These checks should occur at the formal compliance stage and applied equally.

What is the right balance between screening and demand?

There is little doubt tenant demand has reduced significantly over the last 12 months, so we have looked at tenants’ behaviour in response to screening questions in some detail in order to strike the right balance between effective screening and tenant demand and ensure landlords don’t lose tenants unnecessarily.

From our analysis of over 8,000 messages, response rates to screening questions vary significantly depending on how many questions are asked at any one time.

• 2–3 questions → 39.7% response rate
• 4+ questions → 23.2% response rate

We know landlords rightly want to ask more than 3 questions so when thinking about how you ask the questions a progressive or phased qualification process could offer a better balance than a lengthy list of questions in bulk.

A good initial screening approach should:

• Contain 2–3 questions maximum
• Prioritise highest priority questions first
• Defer secondary screening until after first reply

We also know from our own experience and data that the areas most likely to cause a tenant to not qualify to rent a property are:

• Move-in date
• Employment/income
• Household size

A progressive approach could look like:

First screening:

Hi [Name], thanks for your interest
Just a couple of quick questions:

• When are you looking to move?
• What is your monthly income?
• How many people would be living in the property?

An additional change could be to make the initial message more conversational, or more neighbourly.

Hi [Name], thanks for your interest in seeing my property.
Just to check — when are you hoping to move, and what’s the combined monthly income of you and your co-tenants? And how many people would be living there?

On average we see 49 viewing enquiries per property within the first few days of listing a property. These questions are therefore likely to reduce that to 20 potential viewings. Still significant, but a more manageable number to ask more questions to.

Second screening:

After they reply there is an opportunity to ask follow up or secondary questions:

• If income borderline → ask about guarantor
• If household unclear → ask about relationship between tenants
• If strong candidate → move straight to viewing

You can also ask secondary questions:

• Do you have pets or smoke?

What is Hello Neighbour’s approach to screening?

We already send screening questions to every tenant who requests a viewing. These are automatic and replies are captured on the platform and easy for landlords to see. We focus on income and occupation in screening as we capture household details after they have successfully passed pre-screening. We have already designed in a progressive approach.

What questions does Hello Neighbour use to screen viewing requests?

• What is your household’s annual income?
• What is your primary occupation?
• If employed: Are you on a zero hours contract?
• If unemployed: Where does your income come from?
• Have you been resident in the UK for more than 12 months?
• Can you pay rent upfront or do you have a guarantor? (asked if their answers to the above would cause a failure in referencing)

What other questions do we include in the tenant viewing request journey?

• When are you looking to move?
• What best describes your household? (Single, sharers, family)
• How many people will be living at the property? (if not single)
• Do you have any pets?
  • What flavour of pet?
  • Please enter the number (of pets)
  • Please provide a brief description of the pet
• Do you have any specific access requirements?
  • What are your specific access requirements?

Our DIY landlords can ask any additional questions they like direct to the tenants who have requested a viewing.

Neighbourly screening of viewing requests

With the Renters’ Rights Act coming into force on 1 May 2026 and tenant demand declining, it is increasingly important for landlords to screen viewing requests effectively without discouraging suitable tenants.

In this guide and elsewhere there are plenty of questions to choose from. However, striking the right balance between thoroughness and maintaining a neighbourly approach is also important to achieving the best outcome.

We have found a phased or progressive approach works really well and our intuitive, easy-to-use platform can make that a neighbourly experience for any tenant.

We will of course continue to measure which approaches and which questions work best as we work to make lettings easier, quicker and safer.

If you would like to ask any questions or have any suggestions please leave your details in the comment box below.

Methodology for analysis of DIY landlord screening questions

The dataset comprises 8,304 individual pre-viewing questions sent by landlords using Hello Neighbour’s DIY letting products. Messages were analysed to identify recurring screening themes, question categories and whether they were sent in bulk or individually. Percentages represent the proportion of questions in which a specific screening category appeared. The analysis reflects behavioural patterns of active DIY landlords operating in England.