New app promises to take headache out of screening tenants

702'S Relebogile Mabotja is joined by Ross Fitzcharles, founder and CEO of Preferental

Listen below

A new AI-driven app is promising to help make screening potential tenants a whole lot easier.

It's the brainchild of Preferental, a local property technology firm.

Fitzcharles says it's designed to help landlords who are increasingly falling victim to defaulting tenants.

The app not only saves time with the screening process, but can even identify whether documents such as payslips and bank statements have been doctored: 

"Over the last nine years we've been doing tenant vetting on a daily basis and we've seen the increase in fraudulent applications in the last two or three years." 

- Ross Fitzcharles, founder and CEO of Preferental 

"Tenants are manipulating their bank statements, they're not honest about their employment."

- Ross Fitzcharles, founder and CEO of Preferental 

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Fitzcharles says it's estimated that a massive 40% of rental applications contain information that is untrue.

"The number is definitley increasing and it's to do with the online tools available to manipulate these documents."

- Ross Fitzcharles, founder and CEO of Preferental 

So how does the app work?

"Landlords or estate agents can send an application to the tenant, they will sign up, create a profile and then there's an 8-step process of completing the application. They will provide certain supporting documents, make certain disclosures and once they press submit, the landlord can then have clear visibility of their risk profile."

- Ross Fitzcharles, Founder and CEO of Preferental 

"The system basically analyses the underlying data... then our system calculates a risk-based level for the tenant." 

- Ross Fitzcharles, Founder and CEO of Preferental 

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