Artificial intelligence is creating a new challenge for landlords and letting agents: fraudulent tenant applications can now look remarkably convincing.
Fake payslips and altered bank statements are nothing new, but today’s tools make it far easier to create realistic-looking documents, invented employment histories and apparently credible references.
Recent analysis by referencing provider Goodlord, based on more than one million tenant references, found that suspected fraud remains substantially above historic levels. Its data showed particularly rapid increases in areas including fake employment references, referee fraud, and identity manipulation.
Goodlord has also reported a 78.43% year-on-year increase in referee-flagged tenancy fraud, with AI making convincing payslips, bank statements, and employment references increasingly easy to produce.
For landlords, the important message isn’t to become suspicious of every applicant.
It is to stop assuming that a professional-looking document must be genuine.
Don’t rely on appearance alone
Historically, a landlord might check a payslip for obvious alterations, compare it against a bank statement and telephone the employer listed on an application.
The problem is that all three elements can potentially be manipulated.
A convincing payslip can be created digitally. A referee can use an email address designed to resemble a genuine company. A false employment story can be supported by several consistent-looking documents.
Goodlord’s advice is therefore increasingly focused on independent verification and using several checks together rather than relying upon the appearance of applicant-supplied documents.
Practical checks landlords should consider
A robust referencing process might include:
- Identity verification
Make sure the person applying is genuinely who they claim to be and complete the appropriate Right to Rent checks separately. - Independent employer verification
Don’t automatically rely on the telephone number or email address supplied by the applicant. Where appropriate, establish independently that the business exists and that the referee is genuinely connected with it. - Income and affordability checks
Look at the overall picture rather than one payslip. - Open Banking or trusted-data verification
Where provided through a reputable referencing service and with the applicant’s authority, independently sourced financial data can reduce reliance on uploaded screenshots and PDFs. - Credit and address history
Check whether the information provided across the application is consistent. - Previous landlord references
Again, consider whether the referee can be independently verified. - Look for inconsistencies across the whole application
One small discrepancy may be innocent. Multiple discrepancies involving employment dates, salary, addresses and bank information deserve closer examination.
Using a letting agent doesn’t mean forgetting about referencing
Landlords using an agent should understand what referencing service the agent actually provides.
Ask:
- What checks are included?
- Is income independently verified?
- How are employer references authenticated?
- fraud-detection checks used?
- Is identity verification included?
- What happens if something doesn’t match?
“Referenced” can mean different things depending on the service being used.
Don’t discriminate
Fraud prevention must also be applied fairly and consistently.
Landlords should have a clear referencing process and apply equivalent standards to applicants rather than subjecting particular people to additional scrutiny based on assumptions about their background or characteristics.
Key Takeaway
AI hasn’t made tenant referencing pointless.
It has made good referencing more important.
The days of accepting a PDF payslip because it looks professional are disappearing. A modern process should increasingly ask:
Can this information be independently verified?
For landlords managing their own properties, this may be a good time to review their referencing procedures and consider whether the checks they have relied upon for years are still appropriate for the way fraud operates in 2026.