- Suspected rental fraud could expose the UK's private rented sector to £4.1 billion in annual losses.
- Fake employment references rose 226.6 per cent in 2025.
- London and high-value rental properties recorded some of the highest fraud rates.
Fraudulent tenancy applications could expose the UK's private rented sector to £4.1 billion in direct financial losses each year, according to an analysis of more than one million tenant references by Goodlord.
The referencing platform found 41 suspected fraudulent applications for every 1,000 references between July 2025 and June 2026. That was below the peak of 46.6 per 1,000 recorded in late 2024, but remained well above historical levels.
Calendar-year figures point to a more worrying trend. Suspected tenancy fraud increased by almost 40 per cent in 2025 compared with 2024, suggesting that while the rate has eased from its peak, the problem remains significantly larger than it was previously.
Goodlord estimates that a fraudulent tenancy creates an average direct financial exposure of £9,601. That can include unpaid rent, legal and court costs, bailiff fees, periods when a property sits empty and damage to the property.
The £4.1 billion figure is based on applying the observed fraud rate to an estimated 5.3 million privately rented households in the UK, assuming an average of two tenant references per household. It is therefore an estimate of potential exposure rather than a measure of money actually lost.
What appears to be changing is the way the fraud is carried out.
Nishma Parekh, director of referencing at Goodlord, reportedly said fraudsters were moving beyond individual forged documents and creating entire false identities involving fake employers and invented referees.
That means a landlord checking one document at a time could potentially miss a wider pattern. Goodlord is arguing that referencing systems need to look at the application as a whole and be regularly reviewed as tactics change.
The categories of fraud recorded in 2025 underline that shift. Fake employment references increased by 226.6 per cent year-on-year, while referee fraud rose 146.4 per cent and identity manipulation climbed 140.4 per cent.
Although the major fraud categories have all declined slightly in 2026 so far, fake references, bogus referees and forged payslips remain above their 2024 levels.
London and luxury rentals stand out
The risk is not spread evenly across the rental market.
London recorded a suspected fraud rate almost twice the national average, making it the highest of any UK region. The West Midlands followed, with the North West and overseas applications also recording elevated levels.
The biggest difference appears at the top end of the rental market. Properties costing more than £10,000 a month recorded fraud rates approaching 18 applications per 1,000, putting them at roughly three to six times the rate seen across average rental properties.
For landlords, the financial consequences can extend well beyond a tenant missing a month's rent. A fraudulent application that results in a tenancy can potentially leave the property owner dealing with arrears, court proceedings, enforcement costs, repairs and a period without rental income.
Chris Norris, chief policy officer at the National Residential Landlords Association, reportedly said the figures should prompt landlords to reconsider how they assess applications. He pointed to the growing ability of AI tools to produce convincing fraudulent documents and said referencing systems needed to evolve alongside the technology.
The issue comes as the private rented sector is already facing tighter regulation and greater compliance demands. For landlords and letting agents, tenant checks are therefore becoming another area where the cost of getting things wrong can be significant.
The latest figures do not suggest that every suspicious application results in a financial loss, nor that AI is responsible for the overall increase in fraud. But they do point to a rental market where checking whether an applicant is genuine is becoming more complicated.
For landlords, the challenge may increasingly be less about spotting one obviously fake payslip and more about working out whether the entire story behind an application adds up.
