Just for Property Managers, Manager News, Uncategorized
How To Screen Tenants
Screening tenants is a must for any landlord wanting to protect their property and their livelihood, but what are the steps and what rental laws do you need to be aware of? Below, we’ve created a quick list of what to check and how.
Point of contact
When you are dealing with a prospective tenant, the screening process really starts upon your first contact. If they call to inquire about a property for rent, you could begin by stating your rent and security deposit requirements, which may eliminate them right away. If the caller is still a prospect, you can ask them for their name, address, reason for leaving current residence, number of people who would be sharing their unit and whether or not they have pets. Any one of these answers might disqualify the tenant. If not, the individual’s willingness to answer the questions might be a good indication of what kind of candidate you’re dealing with.
The application process
If the prospective tenant has made it through the first step, be sure you have your application in order and that you will make known, either on the application itself, or verbally, what kinds of things will disqualify a potential tenant: criminal history, bankruptcy, poor rental history, etc. Of course you may decide to work with the tenant despite the presence of any one of these conditions, but by law you are required to make the screening process clear, or be willing to return the application fee to the prospective tenant if he or she is rejected.
The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to discriminate against a possible tenant because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status or disability. There are local rights for tenants and landlords (many of which can be found at Landlord.com) of which you should also be aware.
The background check
There are a variety of services, many of them online, that can provide a basic background check on a tenant, including social security number verification, criminal history, evictions, judgments and bankruptcies, and deeper searches that include full credit history and name and address validation. Landlords can choose to be as cursory or probing as they are comfortable with.
References
Though a background check can reveal any legal entanglements that a prospective tenant may have had at a previous address, there is no substitute for speaking directly with previous landlords to determine rental history. It’s a good idea to call all the numbers the tenant provides, including personal references.
When selecting a tenant, use all the tools at your disposal. Sometimes a gut feeling can be more important than all the other avenues in assessing what kind of a tenant someone will be, but be sure to do all of your other homework too.
August 14th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
How do you verify if someone is legally in this country. Driver’s license perhaps? I recently had Mexican people that had a number (like a ss#) but where do you verify the info? They also had driver’s license from Mexico only. I’m thinking they were probably illegal, but not sure.