What A Tenant Screening Process Should Incorporate
The property owners are supposed to carry out background check of their tenants. This is simply referred to as tenant screening.
Tenant screening is carried out to avoid the following issues:
1. Failure to pay rent
2. The property damage
3. Other negative outcomes
However, the process must be in line with federal fair housing laws failure to which the landlord is liable to huge fines.
The following is a list of what should be in tenant screening process:
Eviction history
Eviction is a clear indication that he tenant has been great nuisance to previous landlords. The eviction track is contained in the county and federal level database. However, it stands to be a time consuming process for an average property owner to have access to this information. This is the main reason as to why many property owners and managers fetch their information from third parties. There are specialized companies set to perform tenant eviction back ground check at a lower and favorable price. These companies have dedicated their many years in compiling eviction history tools that help them gather all the necessary information.
Criminal history
The best way to carry out accurate criminal history is by checking out the criminal history of a tenant from his/her counties of resident for the past 7 years. The state, federal as well as the county level database need be cleansed to make sure that any potential resident/tenant is not a criminal by all means. Unfortunately, most of the property owners have much limited time to review the criminal database carefully. However, if you are aggressive, you can carry out tenants background checks at a personal level. Beware that court records, federal search of state prison history, violence and sexual offender lists is always available for the 40 states. It also advisable to out the county records for wherever the tenants have resided for the past 7 years. Lastly, you should also check the state records in conjunction with the 49-state registry of sexual offenders.
Personal credit history
By reviewing tenant’s credit history, you will be at a good position to tell whether he/she is likely to pay his/her rent consistently and in time. Beware that a financial lien is generally promulgated on someone who has portrayed poor financial responsibility based on his debt payment history to his/her lenders. It’s not quite easy to search for lien on each and every tenant especially when you can’t find the resources possessed by the tenant screening background check companies. You also need to check the previous names used by the tenant failure to which you are likely to miss out some important finance peccadillo related to him/her.
Personal references, rental and employment history
Many landlords starts the tenant screening process with a rental application. This is a fairly standard form that asks for personal references in conjunction with rental and employment history. By reviewing the employment history, the property owner get to appreciate each and every tenant’s financial capability. This section of the tenant screening process depicts whether the tenant will manage to pay the rent or not. Rental history helps the property owner to be affirmed that that the tenant is not padding his/her rental behavior. The tenant personal recommendation is also an ideal item for any property owner.
You should always remember that outsourcing all the necessary information from a professional tenant background check company can make the tenant screen process quite easy. Always be cautious to have the best tenants in your house.
If you need help screening new tenants, get the help of experienced property managers.