UK Landlord Forum / Life

I'm hopefully just about to let my first property and have gained lots of useful info on this site, but I have a question regarding the credit checks. I am going to use TenantVerify for the credit checks for my tenants. There will be a joint tenancy agreement and I'm going to credit check both tenants, but I wondered if you credit checked each of them for the full rental amount or if you split it 50/50? I'm thinking that if one of them leaves then the other is responsible for the whole rent. What is normally done here?

Your tenants could opt to be responsible for a % of the rent each.  My experience is that they will not be responsible for paying the full rent if one leaves and then you take the owing rent from the deposit when the second tenant leaves.  You would have the right to evict them after 2 months rent is overdue if paying monthly  see advice on section 8 of the housing act.  Credit check them for the % each of them are responsible for.

I have always just handed over the details to the Letting Agent or referencing outfit and they talk to the Tenants about whatever they need to - including shares of rent etc.. I consider it to be a black box service - the PDFs get sent back to me with either a "pass" or "fail". I follow that advice, generally.

If your tenancy agreement is properly drafted they should be joint and severally liable for the rent so no percentages apply.
You should be comfortable they can pay the full rent each or be comfortable you can get you property back if one of them leaves.
The credit check should really be used for a) income at least double the rent  b) no CCJs c) no unpaid bills
This usually means "green" or Pass in Hippos terminology.

Best of luck