Lettings platform, Goodlord, has announced that it has strengthened its income checks to give landlords and letting agents instant access to verified data, aiming to prevent fraudulent tenancy applications, reduce insurance claims and deliver smoother, more secure tenant referencing.
From 1 July, all eligible applicants undergoing tenant referencing through Goodlord's platform will be required to confirm their income by giving landlords and agents secure access to one of the following Trusted Sources:
Open banking: a direct API connection to the applicant's bank account, letting agents and landlords view exact income streams in real time. This cannot be forged, but does require applicants to have access to online banking.
Payroll: by connecting directly to UK payroll software, agents and landlords can view up-to-date payroll data verified at source, confirming the applicant's full name, date of birth and National Insurance number.
HMRC: through a connection via the Government Gateway, the most authoritative income source available, agents and landlords can surface income data directly from gov.uk.
Trusted Sources is already part of Goodlord's offering, helping the company process more than one million tenancy applications each year. However, the feature has previously been optional, meaning not all tenants referenced through the platform were required to hand over access to these sources.
While 88% of eligible tenants already connect their applications by choice, some elect to confirm their income by manually uploading documents such as payslips or bank statements.
These documents can be forged or manipulated, meaning applications completed this way carry a greater risk of fraud, increasing the chance that tenants who have provided false information fall into arrears. As a result, landlords and agents may be forced into a laborious, time-consuming process to recover funds.
By making Trusted Sources mandatory and fully integrating it into the platform, Goodlord aims to deliver a smoother, more secure referencing process for all eligible tenants. Tenants have historically been frustrated at having to unearth old payslips, manually upload documents and chase missing evidence, holding up their application.
With Trusted Sources, income can be verified in minutes using accurate data that landlords and agents can trust, allowing agents to fill properties more quickly, landlords to make faster, better-informed decisions and tenants to move into their new home sooner.
Tenants who are legitimately unable to use Trusted Sources will still be able to verify their incomes through alternative routes, but the move will prevent thousands of eligible tenants from having to complete the manual process of uploading and cross-checking documents, removing unnecessary barriers to authentication and preventing delays.
The technology is being pioneered by Martyn Gerrard, the award-winning London estate agency, which collaborated closely with the Goodlord team on the development of Trusted Sources and has now become one of the first agencies in the country to deploy the tool across its lettings business.
Greg Tsuman, managing director of lettings at Martyn Gerrard, said the agency pushed for stronger safeguards after noticing an increase in sophisticated fraud attempts. "Our clients - and the protection of their most valuable assets - have always been our number one priority," he said.
"When we recognised fraud attempts were becoming more frequent and sophisticated, particularly with fake AI-generated documents, we pushed for stronger safeguards and worked with Goodlord to design a solution.
"Traditional referencing checks that were effective 10-20 years ago are no longer fit for purpose. By mandating Trusted Sources verification, using open banking, HMRC or payroll data, we've helped create a process that keeps it easy for genuine tenants to prove affordability while making it significantly harder for fraudsters to slip through the net.
"We've always believed prevention is better than cure and are proud to be driving these improvements, which will help shape an approach that benefits the wider industry."
Nishma Parekh, director of referencing at Goodlord, said the change was about turning existing best practice into the standard for everyone. "This isn't about making referencing tougher for the sake of it, it's about taking what is already best practice and making it the standard for everyone," she said.
"When prompted, the vast majority of tenants already choose to use Trusted Sources, because they know it leads to faster, more secure and fairer decision-making. Making this a compulsory step means speeding up the process for tenants and reducing the admin burden on landlords and agents, giving them direct access to verified information, without the need for endless cross-checks.
"We know that payslip fraud is on the rise across the sector, causing real, lasting damage to landlords and agents. Making Trusted Sources the standard won't just allow them to make better decisions about who they rent to in the first place; it'll also give them the peace of mind that if something does go wrong with a tenancy, they've done all they can to ensure that income checks have been made correctly.
"Fraudsters will continue to try to avoid these checks, but the change we're making today will make it much more difficult for them to slip through the net."
