The latest figures for April released by Your Move’s England and Wales rental tracker highlights an increasing number of tenants in arrears for the fourth consecutive month

The agency figures found that 9.4% of all its tenants in arrears last month, up from 9.1% in March, 8.6% in February and 8.4% in January.

While the average yield across England and Wales remained steady at 4.4% throughout April, the regional data contained a range of fluctuations. The YourMove report found that the East Midlands was the only region to record an increase between March and April, which increased from 4% to 4.3%.

In the North West and East of England average yields suffered, dropping to 4.8% and 3.7% respectively.

The monthly study also factored in average rents and found the region with the highest increases was the South West, which registered a total increase of 3% in the previous 12 months, resulting in an average increase per month of 0.3%.

A similar growth was found in the East Midlands, which registered an average growth of 2.9% in the past 12 months, with the average rent now increasing to £654.

With this steady increase in rents likely to further affect tenants, ensuring you’re protected from arrears will continue to become an ever more important matter. UKALA tenant check offers extensive background information and credit checks that will take the risk out of renting, you will be able to find if the tenant:

• Has County Court Judgments
• Has been made bankrupt or are insolvent
• Has NOT lived at the previous address given
• Are NOT who they claim to be
• Are NOT employed and/or earning the amount they claim to be earning
• Have experienced problems with previous landlords/letting agents

Furthermore, if you are looking to recover losses in rent from past or present tenants, services such as NLA Rent Recovery will offer you a more personalised service.

Benefits:

• Fully automated online system
• Online case tracking facility
• Free Support Line
• Fixed Price solution under normal circumstances*
• Discounted rates to NLA Full Members

Blog Post from UKALA

See details of our Guaranteed Rent Scheme here