Landlord's Guide To Tenant Screening
Good tenants pay their rent on time every month, take appropriate care of the property and make only reasonable requests for repairs and maintenance. But such paragons of responsibility aren't easy to find in any rental market.
Part of the reason why such tenants may prove elusive is that property owners and managers don't always use every means at their disposal to find them. Rather, they may use a very informal process that doesn't effectively weed out tenants who aren't desirable for the property.
This informality happens because a thorough tenant-selection process can be time-consuming and most owners and managers have little enough time on their hands. A thorough screening is well worth the effort, however, since one problem tenant can cause a lot of headaches such as damage to the property, safety hazards that result in injuries to the tenant or visitors, and legal costs to force an eviction, for example. Any of those headaches can be much more time-consuming and costly in the long run than a thorough screening at the time when the tenant is selected.
One tool for tenant selection is a screening report that includes information from credit files, criminal records, registered sex offenders Web sites, and proprietary databases that track tenants as they move in and move out of rental housing. Some of this data is available only by subscription to a service or from a tenant screening company.
The cost may be as little as $10 for a credit report or as much as $75 or more for a full records search. Individual property owners may be at a disadvantage when it comes to pricing because quantity discounts usually are offered only to large apartment management firms. Some of the largest screening services don't accept orders from small-scale property owners. But others welcome all business.
Some rental housing experts are critical of screening reports because the information may be inaccurate or out-dated and thus misleading as to characteristics and suitability of the prospective tenant. Property owners also need to take care that screening reports aren't used to discriminate in housing against protect classes.
Smart property owners supplement screening reports with a rental application and telephone calls to the tenant's employer, former landlord and other references to verify the information.
The employer should verify the applicant's employment and income and may be willing to say whether the tenant comes to work on time, cooperates with co-workers and keeps his or her work space neat and clean. Those behaviors might suggest the person would be a good tenant. Former landlords should verify whether the applicant paid the rent on time and took good care of the property.
Objective questions that focus on facts are better than subjective questions such as whether the individual was a "good tenant." Ask a few questions about the employer's business and the landlord's other properties as well to unmask any friends a dishonest applicant may have listed in the guise of an employer or landlord.
A credit report may reveal whether an applicant owes money to other rental property owners. Inconsistencies between prior addresses listed on the credit report and rental application could suggest an eviction or other problem that merits further investigation.
Copyright 2007. Marcie Geffner. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author.
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