We were one of the first companies operating in the credit sector to recognise the increasing professionalism of letting agents. We have been providing services to letting agents for over 10 years, acting for both independent and national companies.

How MARAS can help you

MARAS provide a full report on your potential tenants (including company or overseas applicants) in an average of 2 working days.

Agents with web access, e-mail or a dedicated fax line can opt for the following free services:

• same-day automatic acknowledgement on all cases received by 3.00pm on a working day.

• On-line application tracker facility, allowing you, your applicant or your landlord to track the progress of the application and to see what information is awaited.

• automatic interim reports which will update you as to the progress of an application and advise if there is any delay (after 2 working days and then every 24 hours until the case is finalised).

Agents can receive reports from MARAS by E-mail, Fax or by Post.

Independent
We provide an independent opinion as to the suitability of your prospective tenant. We cannot be influenced either:-

• financially: as we operate on a flat fee basis per application. We do not increase our charges in line with the rental payable.

• personally: as we do not meet applicants face to face.

We provide a purely factual report enabling agents and landlords to make informed decisions with the minimum of risk.

Specialists

Our core business is the vetting of prospective tenants for rental property. We do not manage properties ourselves, concentrating our skills in providing a reliable and efficient service to our customers. Quite simply, our job is to process applications as efficiently and reliably as possible.

MARAS also have specialist personnel on hand to deal with applications from foreign nationals, limited companies and other firms. There is no additional charge for the investigation of these cases. Our personnel are accountable for the reports they produce and make their judgement on the facts provided. We do not operate a point score system.

Revealing information

Our full referencing reports offer more than simply the taking up of references from previous landlords and employers.

We do not take applications at face value, we VERIFY all details and if we cannot verify the information supplied, for whatever reason, we dig deeper to uncover reasons why and report back to you with our recommendations.

Complete service
Our enquiries and investigations build up a full and complete profile of the applicants' suitability, helping to eliminate the dishonest tenant. Some of the more common deceptions are;

• Discrepancies in applicants' residential history

• "Borrowed" identities

• Undisclosed adverse credit history

• Fictitious employers

• Friends of the applicant posing as current landlords.

The criminal element

Unfortunately, the lettings market does attract a hardcore of fraudsters. One individual applied for tenancy via five separate letting agents who all referenced through MARAS. Once he was initially rejected, despite having altered information on the application form, our database identified him and we rejected his subsequent applications – perhaps he got lucky on his sixth attempt via an agent who did not use MARAS?

Accurate recommendations

MARAS have earned a reputation for a fast and accurate reporting service on potential tenants. Our current default ratio on approved tenants is less than 1/3rd of 1%. As part of our commitment to you, a unique free pre-sue service is available should a tenant approved for the tenancy by MARAS prove troublesome.