Instant Tenant Screening
Thirty years ago rental property owners, including me at the time, never paid much attention to tenant background screening or background checks.
Actually most of us used a short rental or lease form picked up at a local stationary store that basically only required a few bits of personal information with a signature at the bottom of the one page.
Oh, boy, have things changed.
In today's rental market property owners are suspect of every person, or should be.
Now it's trust but verify, phone calls on tenant history, and a current credit report from all three reporting agencies.
Next thing you know, property owners will be asking new tenants to cut a deck of cards and give a blood sample.
Of course there are some landlords and property owners with investments in the lower income section of major cities who take a nihilistic approach and could care less about a tenant check or tenant verification of any type and any upfront rental deposit is ignored as well.
Just rent it and forget it, baby.
These landlords rent on a month-to-month basis and if the rent is not paid and a tenant eviction looms on the horizon, a 30 day notice to vacate is presented to the tenant to pay or quit.
Some property owners have been known to simply use an acrimonious tone to the tenant inserting the word police or sheriff which makes the tenant think twice about damaging the rental unit.
One exception to property owners and landlords having to get a migraine over tenant evictions, tenant leasing, background screening, tenant checks, tenant history, tenant verification of employment or a 10 year tenant background check is getting the Federal Government involved via the Section 8 rental program.
Section 8 is low income housing using a voucher system to income-qualified rental units.
Section 8, in advance, pretty much has all the tenant personal information on hand before contacting landlords or property owners on vacant units that may be available to rent.
The government also shares in paying a portion of the rent on behalf of the tenant.
One of the drawbacks on this program is the amount of allowable rent charged to the tenant by the owner.
In any tenant screening process a landlord or owner is NOT required to rent to any one person or family.
However, discrimination is profligate and not tolerated.
There are generally two forms used when renting or leasing an income unit: a month-to-month rental agreement and landlord and tenant agreement to lease.
When either form is completed by a tenant a landlord or owner should have in hand every possible thing to know about the future tenant including, but not limited to, picture drivers license, DOB, past and present employment, bank info, financial obligations, personal references, and much more.
Even though rental agreement paperwork is not the paragon of security that it could be, it's safe to say it contains enough tenant screening information to protect against any legal endeavors by tenants.
Actually most of us used a short rental or lease form picked up at a local stationary store that basically only required a few bits of personal information with a signature at the bottom of the one page.
Oh, boy, have things changed.
In today's rental market property owners are suspect of every person, or should be.
Now it's trust but verify, phone calls on tenant history, and a current credit report from all three reporting agencies.
Next thing you know, property owners will be asking new tenants to cut a deck of cards and give a blood sample.
Of course there are some landlords and property owners with investments in the lower income section of major cities who take a nihilistic approach and could care less about a tenant check or tenant verification of any type and any upfront rental deposit is ignored as well.
Just rent it and forget it, baby.
These landlords rent on a month-to-month basis and if the rent is not paid and a tenant eviction looms on the horizon, a 30 day notice to vacate is presented to the tenant to pay or quit.
Some property owners have been known to simply use an acrimonious tone to the tenant inserting the word police or sheriff which makes the tenant think twice about damaging the rental unit.
One exception to property owners and landlords having to get a migraine over tenant evictions, tenant leasing, background screening, tenant checks, tenant history, tenant verification of employment or a 10 year tenant background check is getting the Federal Government involved via the Section 8 rental program.
Section 8 is low income housing using a voucher system to income-qualified rental units.
Section 8, in advance, pretty much has all the tenant personal information on hand before contacting landlords or property owners on vacant units that may be available to rent.
The government also shares in paying a portion of the rent on behalf of the tenant.
One of the drawbacks on this program is the amount of allowable rent charged to the tenant by the owner.
In any tenant screening process a landlord or owner is NOT required to rent to any one person or family.
However, discrimination is profligate and not tolerated.
There are generally two forms used when renting or leasing an income unit: a month-to-month rental agreement and landlord and tenant agreement to lease.
When either form is completed by a tenant a landlord or owner should have in hand every possible thing to know about the future tenant including, but not limited to, picture drivers license, DOB, past and present employment, bank info, financial obligations, personal references, and much more.
Even though rental agreement paperwork is not the paragon of security that it could be, it's safe to say it contains enough tenant screening information to protect against any legal endeavors by tenants.