Should a Tenant Pay for their Landlord Reference?

This blog was supposed to be about student checkouts, but then something happened today that made me so cross, I felt I had to write about it. In a nutshell we discovered tenants are being charged by previous Letting Agents for a Landlord Reference to give to us. 

We take up references on all prospective tenants here at AUL.  This is Lettings 101.  We use a specialist AND Independent referencing company who conduct a credit check, a current or previous landlord/agent reference and an employment/income check on the tenant.  If for any reason we need a guarantor we do the same on the guarantor.

Last week I showed a couple a flat in Emerson’s Green, they liked it, I liked them & we agreed they could rent it.  We instructed the reference company to take up references.  Today we were told that they could not get a landlord reference not because they were bad tenants or because the landlord was not contactable but because their previous letting agent wanted paying before they would provide the landlord's reference.

Charging for Landlord References....

Beals of Fareham in Hampshire (for it was them) charge to provide landlord references for their previous tenants, and you wonder why letting agents have a bad name?  I thought this type of sharp practice went out with the ark?  If an agent cannot make money from legitimate fees then they don’t deserve to be in business. 

There is however a more serious question.  How objective is a reference when the person being referred is paying for it?  If I pay for a service (for example a solicitor or accountant) then I expect the provider to act on my behalf.  That does not mean that they should act illegally, but it does mean that they should working in my best interests.

So the questions I am asking are, and I’d really like your opinion on this

Should the tenant pay for the reference?  And if he or she does can I trust a reference that has been paid for?