That property might look perfect, but what about the person renting it to you? Here’s how to dig a little deeper before you sign anything.
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Finding Reviews on Letting Agents & Landlords in St Andrews
No matter how attractive a property looks on the surface you also want a good letting agent (and owner, particularly if you are dealing with the owner directly) So it pays to do your homework before signing a lease. Fortunately, there are some great tools out there to help you find out what previous tenants thought about their landlord or letting agent.
Google Reviews
A quick Google search of any letting agent’s name — for example, “ABC Lettings St Andrews” — will usually bring up their Google Business profile, complete with star ratings and reviews. It’s a good starting point for gauging an agency’s reputation, though bear in mind that reviews can vary in number and not all landlords or smaller agents will have a profile. The larger the sample size the more reliable the overall rating.
Marks Out of Tenancy
For a more tenancy-specific picture, Marks Out of Tenancy is well worth a look. It’s a UK-wide platform but it has a fair number of St Andrews specific reviews and you can easily find the “best” and “worst” landlords in town!
I won’t mention the current St Andrews “top and bottom of the pops” because it’s a dynamic thing, but well worth checking that your potential agent or landlord isn’t amongst the poorly reviewed!
Scottish Landlord Register
Every landlord (owner) looking to rent out a property in Scotland must register and on successful registration they are issued with a reference number. That registration number is your key to finding out who they are and maybe then doing a bit of Googling or searching for their name in Marks Out Of Tenancy.
Any advertisement of a rental property (certainly listings from a reputable agency) should include this Landlord Registration number, for instance “Landlord Registration: 123456/123/12345”. You can then visit the Scottish Landlord Register , enter the registration number and find the name of the landlord (or their business name). Or, if for some reason the registration number isn’t available to you, you can enter the property postcode and then select it’s exact address to get the landlord details.