[gambiting]

This is standard state of affairs in the UK, I see some agencies in US started to take notice.

Basically if you want to rent a property here, an agency will demand that you pay their fee first(last time I paid over 500 pounds just in agency fees), so they can run a full background check on you - so you have to submit proof of your employment, proof of income, history of addresses for past 3 years, bank account details, copy of my passport to prove the right to rent in the UK, and then it's sent off to some agency somewhere which does the check.

And basically it comes back as yes/no, depending on your credit score, income, blah blah blah. If it comes back as no, you lose all the money you paid in those "fees".

It's a scam of gigantic proportions, but UK plays along because people here love "order" and being invigilated by some random rental agency seems to scratch that itch.

[mijoharas]

True, but we are trying to make it illegal [0] for precisely the reasons you stated, and it's already illegal in Scotland.

[0] http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/buytolet/article-4032280/...