According to letting agent supplier HomeLet, tenancy fraud is on the rise. The referencing provider is currently identifying 150 cases of fraud every day, up from 110 a day in 2021 - representing a 36% increase in just over a year.

A separate survey by HomeLet found that over half of UK landlords are still paying off a BTL mortgage and therefore rely on receiving their monthly rental income to cover the mortgage costs.

Fraudsters are constantly getting smarter and finding new, inventive ways to attempt to trick the system. One of the main ways fraudulent tenants try to circumvent the process is through document forgery.

HomeLet is now incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) technology into its tenant checking process. The firm checks applications against over 500m data points, including the CIFAS database and their own unique default database, and completes a multitude of checks, including financial sanctions.

Commenting on AI technology, head of customer operations at HomeLet, Rebecca Baker, said: “It’s great to add another line of defence to our growing armoury of advanced fraud detection. Just last week, we stopped a case in Mayfair from getting through where the monthly rent was over £5,000. The fraudster had edited their documents to make it look like they were earning income from a legitimate source, but the source and transaction had been forged.”