Employment verification in a tenant screen means contacting the employer directly to confirm that the tenant’s stated employment exists, that the tenant currently holds the stated role, and that the stated salary corresponds to what the employer pays. The contact is by telephone, to a number obtained independently of the tenant’s supplied documents. The certificate the tenant provides is not the verification; the call is the verification. The distinction matters.
An employment certificate is a document produced by the employer’s human resources function and signed and stamped by an authorised person. In the great majority of cases, the certificate is authentic and the information it contains is correct. In the cases where it is not, the only way to discover the discrepancy is to contact the employer.
Documents can be reproduced. Stamps can be reproduced. Signatures can be reproduced. The protection against this, in any screening context, is contemporaneous verification with the issuing party. Where the certificate is genuine, the verification call confirms it. Where the certificate is not genuine, the verification call is the only place where this becomes apparent.
This is the structural reason why a screen that relies on certificates without verification calls is not a complete screen. The work the call does is the work the certificate cannot do on its own.
The verifier obtains the employer’s main contact number independently — through the company’s published switchboard, through a regulated business directory, through the employer’s own website. The verifier does not call the number printed on the certificate, because the number printed on the certificate is part of the document being verified.
The call is placed to the employer’s human resources or finance department. The verifier introduces themselves, states the purpose of the call — verification of a current employee in connection with a tenancy application that the employee has consented to — and asks the questions: is this person employed by you, is this their current role, is this their current monthly salary. The responses are noted. The call is dated and the person spoken to is identified by department and, where given, by name.
Three things are verified by the call: the existence of the stated employment relationship, the current role and the current employment status, and the salary. The verifier does not ask about the employee’s performance, conduct, or character. The scope is bounded to the facts that bear on the tenancy decision.
The call does not verify whether the tenant’s employment will continue through the term of the proposed tenancy. The call does not verify whether the salary is, in the tenant’s own circumstances, sufficient to cover the rent. The call does not produce a prediction; it produces a confirmation of present fact.
Some employers, particularly some larger employers, decline to confirm employment by telephone as a matter of policy. They may direct the verifier to a portal, to a third-party verification service, or to a written-confirmation channel. The screen pursues the verification through whichever channel the employer permits. Where verification cannot be obtained through any channel within a reasonable period, the screen records the position honestly: the employment was attempted but could not be verified through the employer’s available channels, with the reason stated.
This is the appropriate honest report. It is materially better, in a screen, to say that verification could not be obtained than to record an unverified certificate as verified.
Where the tenant is self-employed, the employment-verification call is replaced by trade licence verification with the relevant licensing authority and by review of bank statements showing income inflows. The principle is the same: verification with the issuing or recording party, not reliance on the document the tenant has supplied.
Related pages: what a tenant screen includes, the limits of screening.