Date Published 14 August 2026
There was a time when a fraudulent tenancy application might involve a badly altered payslip or a friend pretending to be a previous landlord.
You could often spot the dodgy font, questionable figures or email address that didn't quite match the company supposedly providing the reference.
Unfortunately, things have moved on.
Artificial intelligence can now help fraudsters produce convincing payslips, employment references, bank documents and identification in minutes. In some cases, they aren't simply changing one document—they are creating an entire fictional identity around the application.
For landlords, that makes proper tenant referencing more important than ever.
How big is the problem?
Goodlord recently analysed more than one million tenant references processed over a two-year period.
Its findings showed that 41 applications per 1,000 references were flagged for suspected fraud between July 2025 and June 2026.
That is just over four in every 100 references.
It is important to say that these were applications flagged as suspicious, rather than every case being proven fraud. However, the number remains significantly above historic levels.
Goodlord also found that incidences of suspected fraud increased by almost 40% during 2025 compared with the previous year.
For an individual landlord, the percentages may sound fairly small. But you don't experience the national average—you experience the tenant living in your property.
It only takes one fraudulent application to cause a very expensive problem.
Could tenant fraud really cost landlords £4.1 billion?
Goodlord estimates that fraudulent tenancy applications could expose the UK private rented sector to as much as £4.1 billion in direct financial losses each year.
That does not mean £4.1 billion has already been stolen or lost.
It is an estimate of the sector's potential exposure, calculated using Goodlord's observed suspected-fraud rate together with estimated costs including:
Unpaid rent.
Legal and court fees.
Bailiff costs.
Empty periods while possession is recovered.
Damage to the property.
The cost of preparing the home for a new tenant.
Goodlord estimates the average direct financial exposure connected to a fraudulent tenancy at £9,601.
Even if a landlord's actual loss were considerably less than that, it would still be a painful and potentially avoidable bill.
Fraudsters are building complete identities
The biggest change isn't simply that fake documents look better.
It is that the different parts of a fraudulent application can now be made to support one another.
An applicant might provide a convincing payslip from a business that doesn't really employ them. That business may have a professional-looking website, a suitable email address and somebody ready to answer the telephone as the employer.
The application may also include doctored identification, invented referees and financial documents that appear to confirm the same false story.
Goodlord's analysis of confirmed fraud during 2025 found that:
Fake employment references increased by 226.6%.
Fraud involving referees increased by 146.4%.
Identity manipulation increased by 140.4%.
The days of looking at one payslip, deciding it appears genuine and approving the tenant should be firmly behind us.
It isn't only a London problem
Goodlord's data showed that London had the highest confirmed fraud rate—almost twice the national average.
The West Midlands and North West also recorded comparatively high rates, while overseas applications presented additional challenges.
That does not mean landlords in Poole can assume it won't happen here.
Fraudsters go where there are properties they want, and strong competition for rental homes can create additional pressure to make an application look more attractive.
A landlord may receive an applicant who appears perfect on paper, is eager to move quickly and perhaps offers several months' rent in advance.
That can sound reassuring, but it should never be used as a reason to skip or shorten the normal referencing process.
A genuine applicant should still be expected to complete the same checks as everybody else.
Why uploaded documents are no longer enough
A payslip can be edited. A bank statement can be altered. A reference letter can be written by almost anyone.
That doesn't make those documents useless, but it does mean they shouldn't automatically be accepted as proof on their own.
Modern referencing increasingly involves checking information directly against trusted sources.
Depending on the applicant's circumstances, this might include verifying financial information through Open Banking, confirming income through payroll information or checking data against HMRC records.
Employment details should be independently verified rather than relying entirely on the telephone number or email address supplied by the applicant.
Identity, address history, affordability and rental history should also make sense when viewed together.
No single check can remove every risk. The strongest defence is a layered process combining reliable technology, independent information and experienced human judgement.
What warning signs should landlords look for?
One unusual detail doesn't necessarily mean somebody is committing fraud. People have complicated employment histories, change addresses and occasionally make innocent mistakes on application forms.
The concern is usually when several pieces of information don't quite fit together.
Possible warning signs can include:
Employment dates or salary figures that change between documents.
A referee using a personal email address when they supposedly represent a large company.
Contact details that cannot be independently connected to the employer.
An applicant who is reluctant to use secure income-verification services.
Documents with inconsistent formatting, figures or information.
Pressure to move in before the referencing process has finished.
An offer of rent in advance in exchange for reduced checks.
Different names, dates of birth or addresses appearing across the application.
These are reasons to investigate—not reasons to make assumptions or automatically reject somebody.
Every applicant should be treated fairly and assessed through the same consistent process.
Why we use professional referencing
At Lewis Dean, we use Goodlord to conduct our tenant referencing.
That gives us access to specialist systems designed to verify applicants and identify inconsistencies that may not be obvious from uploaded paperwork alone.
However, we don't believe tenant selection should simply be left to a computer.
We also look at the complete application, consider whether the property is suitable and follow up anything that doesn't make sense.
A reference report reduces risk, but it can never guarantee how somebody will behave throughout a tenancy.
The final decision still requires proper checks, experience and judgement.
Don't rush because demand is high
A rental property sitting empty costs money, so it is understandable that landlords want to secure a tenant quickly.
The problem comes when speed becomes more important than accuracy.
Taking an extra day to investigate an inconsistency is far better than discovering three months into the tenancy that the applicant never had the employment or income they claimed.
The aim isn't to make life unnecessarily difficult for genuine tenants. Most applicants are perfectly honest and simply want somewhere suitable to live.
Proper referencing protects them too. It helps ensure that the rent is genuinely affordable and reduces the risk of the tenancy failing later.
Finding a tenant is easy—choosing one is different
In the current Poole rental market, advertising a good property can produce plenty of enquiries.
That doesn't mean the first person to apply should automatically receive the keys.
AI may be making fraudulent applications more convincing, but landlords and agents also have better verification technology available to them.
The answer is to use it properly, keep reviewing the referencing process and never rely on one impressive-looking document.
If you're a landlord in Poole and would like help finding and properly referencing a tenant, speak to Lewis Dean Letting Agents.
We'll make sure the application receives the attention it deserves—because finding someone who wants the property is only the beginning.
Figures are taken from Goodlord's August 2026 'Tenancy Fraud Is No Joke' research. The £4.1 billion figure represents Goodlord's estimate of potential annual sector-wide exposure, rather than confirmed losses.
