FCCParagon Avis 

This is good for only the landlord and agency side.
asking unnecessary documents is making more difficult for the renters who could lose the holding deposit.
i couldnt say all the renters is good, but by doing that some landlords could lose some honest tenants as well.
credit history is just the history and someone like myself with ccj might have own reasons and the only important thing is to pay the rent on time and follow the agreement.
as for me self employed, it is too difficult to rent the property.
it would be better if there is strong contract, flexible referencing between landlord and tenants rather than credit history checking.
i dont think we can decide someone just to look papers and credit history.

i wish it would be more flexible terms between landlords and tenants in the future. otherwise tenants are the one losing the holding deposits and property agencies are profiting.

I’ve had such a terrible experience working with this company for referencing. The agent I worked with was very unprofessional, she would say she has all the information she needed and email me 2 days later requesting more information.

They asked for 3 months of bank statements, 3 months of paystubs, my offer letter, a reference letter, and my employers email. Also, they needed proof of my current address from a utility bill dated in the last 30 days. If I’m moving into a new flat from living with family how am I mean’t to provide this?

They were extremely tedious asking for all the addresses on my pay stubs, bank statements, application form, etc. to match the current address that I had to send in. They don’t accept that not everyone has the same lifestyle and might not have documents in the very specific way they want to receive it.

Once she reluctantly accepted my reference letter, she asked for 3 further revisions stating that it include the address of the office I work from or saying “work from home” in it. Also, although it said “full time employee”, she asked for another revision saying “permanent full time employee”. They are extremely tedious for no reason. This caused delays asking for my employer to revise the reference letter adding small one word additions.

After all this, she asked for an email from the person who wrote the reference letter even though we went this route because my employer doesn’t give out personal email addresses, also the person who signed off on the reference letter happened to be the CEO since HR has an automated process, so she wanted the CEO to email her.

On top of all of this, sometimes referencing lines are down from 12pm-4pm some days randomly, and nobody calls you back or replies to their emails.

I suggest if you are working with this company and are placed with Shelby Harrison, ask to speak directly to a manager. The manager, Megan, helped a lot with the case.

Absolutely horrible experience, the company is unprofessional and "48 hour" referencing checks turned into weeks of waiting around for them to answer and check their emails. The company asked for 6 months of payslips and bank statements, after which the same person told me that me sending them was a waste of my time because they're not going to check them anyway and need more unnecessary information from my employer. I never write reviews, but I believe this one is fully deserved after such horrible service and stressful experience which went back and forth for weeks. I honestly advise people to stay away from this company.

Gave a scammer a good reference and now SCAMMED FOR £5,500. References are not worth the paper written on.

I have been renting for a number of years and dealt with various companies for references. But FCC paragon have been the absolute worst company I have ever dealt with for my references. They were very rude and asking my employers ridiculously detailed information which they themselves didn't know.
In the end the referencing was completed but this was by the far the worst experience I have ever had. I request all landlords to please not use this company to obtain references

Awful unprofessional experience, very afraid they have stolen my identity. Their call back number charged .08 pminute.

As a guarantor for a friend, was shocked and horrified at the detail of information FCC required. This is not the first time I have been a guarantor so totally took me by surprise that they wanted not only salary, date of birth, National Insurance number, bank statements and passports. If I find my anything of mine scammed will be seeing them in court!

I've acquired the services of this joke of a company so they can carry out referencing/documentation checks on my tenants.
However the tenants showed me the emails that they received from them. The emails had threatening language and they were harassing the tenants. Soon after the reference information was provided to FCC Paragon, the tenants started receiving offers from insurance companies and other marketing agencies which suggests their personal details such as phone number, email address, home address etc were sold/leaked to other companies. One of my tenant told me that she gave the employer details to carry out job reference and they were asking their HR manager for their personal details like name, date of birth etc which obviously they refused. FCC Paragon then had a very rude email conversation with them which was very embarrassing for the tenant. I deal everyone with respect and expect others to do the same. I won't do business with an unprofessional company like FCC Paragon.

To landlords, please don't be a part of the hostile policy of this company. To tenants, when renting a property first check if the landlord or letting agency are carrying out reference checks (harassment) through FCC paragon. If they are, just don't bother renting that property unless you want to undergo the unnecessary stress.

Texted a couple of times to ask if I'd call back on a number that has a charge then sent text calling me a toss3r.