PayProp, SA’s largest processor of rental payments for the residential letting industry today announced the launch of the PayProp Tenant Assessment Report. CEO Louw Liebenberg says that the report offers a far more comprehensive assessment of a potential tenant than a standard credit check.
“It is increasingly clear that credit checks alone are not adequate to fully understand the extent of non-payment risk that a new tenant presents. It’s important that estate agencies and landlords seek more forward-looking indicators of affordability, to better anticipate if a tenant will be able to pay in future or not,” says Liebenberg. The PayProp Tenant Assessment Report lists all prior credit behaviour information as well as provides an all-encompassing look at a tenant’s current level of debt relative to income and the rental value applied to form a comprehensive view of a tenant’s level of non-payment risk.
To build this revolutionary report PayProp Capital, a sister company of PayProp developed a statistical model in partnership with Compuscan, one of South Africa’s leading credit bureaus. Based on the analysis of millions of actual rental transactions the model helped the company to better understand the predictors of tenant behaviour and formed the basis of developing a customised decision making tool for the rental industry. According to Colin Habberton, CEO of PayProp Capital, “it is incredible how, even with the same dataset that is available to all credit bureaus, one is able to get a more comprehensive answer around tenancy risk if you ask very specific questions.”
PayProp actively encourages its’ clients to share the information with their tenants. “Historically, there seems to be a perception that the public need to be excluded from being able to view or manage their credit history, but landlords and agents are now encouraged to share this assessment report with their tenants.” The report uses an easy to interpret graphical interface to help tenants understand exactly how different behaviours impact on a tenant’s perceived ability to pay.
Liebenberg adds that a Tenant Assessment Report can only be conducted with the consent of the tenant. “Securing total piece of mind when it comes to rental transactions is vital to ensure a harmonious relationship with a new tenant.” Furthermore, PayProp keeps a detailed audit trail of exactly which system user requested a report – with each report request time and date stamped so that an exact trace of every requests exists.
