Landlord References

General Discussion

Dear Forum,

I received a landlord reference from a tenant's (then) existing landlord (in support of a tenancy application from the tenant themselves for one of my own properties) which reference reported no problems arising with a tenant's tenancy.

I now have it on good authority that the assurances contained within this reference were false and that the tenant in question was in fact facing eviction by the landlord concerned.

Does the existing landlord bear any civil or criminal liability in issuing a fraudulent reference in support of a fraudulent application from this tenant?