The signing up process

To prove you are who you say you are and have the right to rent.

• Your agent or landlord is legally required to view and photocopy a valid form of ID, such as a British passport or national identity card or a letter of attestation and drivers license with a birth certificate. If you are a non-British citizen, you may be able to provide a share code to prove your immigration status, for your landlord to undergo the check online.

We can review expired passports - as long as the corners haven't been clipped.

To prove your funds can cover the rent.

You'll need to earn 2.5 x your annual rent to pass referencing or you may be asked to provide a guarantor. There are different ways we can check this.

Speed up referencing with open banking:

• If you're been a PAYE employee for over 3 months, you'll see the chance to connect via open banking in your Goodlord platform.
• You won’t have to provide proof of income documents - the provider can instead see a snapshot of your income as quickly and securely as possible.

If you're employed:

• You'll need to provide 3 months' worth of your most recent payslips or written confirmation of your employment from your employer. If you're paid weekly or fortnightly we require 2 payslips from each month.
• If you're employed between 1-3 months, we'll need a signed contract of employment along with any payslips received during your employment.
• If you're employed less than 1 month, we'd need your signed contract of employment
• For future employment, we can take a signed job offer letter or a signed contract

If you're a student:

• If you have income from student funding, you'll need to share a headed and signed document from a legitimate funding source including:
• Start and end date of funding
• The breakdown of the funding
• We don't take student maintenance/loans into consideration.

If you have income from overseas:

• We can assess overseas income as long as you continue to receive it while in the UK.
• We'll need a reference from your employer to confirm that you will continue being employed whilst residing in the UK.

If you cannot connect to open banking, another way for us to confirm your income is by contacting a referee from your employers. They must be in a position higher than you and have a professional email address - no gmail or hotmail accounts!

Let them know in advance that they’ll be contacted, to get a faster response.

You'll simply need to give your written permission for Goodlord to get an overview of your credit history, using publicly available data. You'll need to declare any adverse credit, such as CCJ’s, IVA’s and Bankruptcies - whethersatisfied or not - within the last six years. This is a soft check so don't worry - your credit score won’t be affected. You can even run your own check in advance, to make sure there'll be no issues.

Your guarantor will have to go through a similar referencing process and credit check, as they can't have any adverse credit. You should bear someone in mind for this role, and let the know as soon as possible if they’re needed. They'll need a salary of 3 x the rent to pass referencing and should be living in the UK.

Paying a holding deposit secures the property and you can choose for it to go towards your security deposit (maximum of 5 weeks rent, or 6 weeks’, if your annual rent is more than £50,000), which will be held in a secure deposit protection scheme by your agent or landlord. You may also need to pay at least a month’s rent in advance, so you’ll always be paying rent for the month ahead.