Don't risk getting on a Bad Tenant Database

How many people know about Tica and other "bad tenant" databases? These exist so that landlords and real estate agents can be warned of people with bad rental histories, typically not paying rent, damaging property, or departing without settling outstanding debts. We recently had an application to rent a property, and found the applicant's name on Tica. It seems there had been a dispute with his previous managing agency, and rather than resolve it through the Tenancy Tribunal he had just walked away from it. Now he finds himself unable to rent! In order to recover his situation, he contacted the previous agency and settled their claim against him, so the landlord was happy. However it might have cost the applicant less if he had taken the agency to the Tribunal for a ruling at the time, as the Tribunal might have ruled in his favour.