Landlords cannot look at tenants’ profiles and read their feedback
Tenants have to make a deliberate choice to apply on a landlord’s advert, unlocking their profile in the process and if they no longer want that landlord to see them they can unapply
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RenterBall blocks bad tenants from Renting
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With our goal in mind not to be a blacklist site and to stop bad tenants from reoffending RenterBall had a choice of what tenant behaviours should we have programmed into the website that would physically block the tenant account from renting again?
Should there be any?
Or should it be the landlord’s exclusive decision if they wish to rent to somebody after reading their profile
And the simple conclusion was
“ nope”
A landlord account should not be able to see a tenant’s application if that tenant has a debt feedback and is not on a payment plan
Why should a landlord have their time wasted by someone who owes their current or previous landlords money and are not on a payment plan
The only time a tenant account is blocked from signing a RenterBall agreement or applying on adverts is if they have feedback declaring they owe a debt to a landlord
No sob story is ever good enough, I’m sure we’ve all experienced it, a tenant coming up with excuses to your face of why some misfortune happened to them and next time they will do better
Put your foot down, draw a line in the sand
Landlords should Never rent to a tenant if that tenant is unable or unwilling to deal with their debts to their previous landlords
If as a selfish landlord you think stuff the previous landlord, not my problem as long as the tenant pays me my rent, I’m good
In the short term you are correct, as a landlord myself I selfishly believe in that and to be honest I have taken on tenants who I believe have cost their previous landlord money. Knowing that I would put the tenant on whatever scheme or system that would mean they wouldn’t cheat me, a great guarantor is the current favourite
But then it comes down to the prisoner’s dilemma phenomena
By me unable to take on somebody else’s bad tenant it makes it that you cannot take on my bad tenants so therefore overall as a collective group landlords are better off if tenants know they cannot trick a new landlord into having them
Recap for those who do not know about the prisoner’s dilemma, it goes something like this
Two bank robbers have been arrested
If they say nothing they both get 5 years each
One testifies against the other and gets 1 year and the other gets 10
If they both testify against each other then they both get 10 years
As the prisoners are kept separated they don’t know what the other is going to do
Collectively say nothing is the best outcome as a group but if one of the bank robbers testifies risking that the other person does not testify against them they will only get 1 year
RenterBall needs to be the third party who says “NO”
You are both getting five years if you betray the other you’ll be shanked in the showers
If landlords are no longer selfish we will all be richer and have happier lives knowing bad tenants cannot rent again
In the short term we have issues such as If we declare a bad tenant to be bad they will not move out early and you could be forced to use bailiffs. Declaring them to be good could help them secure new accommodation and no longer be your problem
As a landlord you must think this clearly tempting but the response has to be
“Think of the long game”
By declaring they are bad, means they will have to pay up eventually, if it’s not this year, it could be in five years time as more landlords come on board with RenterBall The net tightens and bad tenants can only escape if they leave the country or no longer rent again
In the future not even buying a property will get a tenant out of not paying the rent as we will be able to check every new land registry purchase against people with bad feedback so if they buy a property you can sue them easily and they cannot hide and will have to pay up