Tenant screening is crucial for every landlord, particularly in this age of identity theft and scammers. Prospective tenants sometimes apply to rent a property using another person’s name or scam landlords by leaving other adults who will live in your rental property off the lease or by committing other scams. There are so many means of attempting to take advantage of landlords that conducting thorough tenant screening is the best way of assuring you rent to a well-qualified applicant. American Apartment Owners Association (AAOA) can help you quickly eliminate unqualified rental applicants, allowing the best-qualified applicants the ability to rise to the top of the list. When you conduct thorough tenant screening, you also protect your reputation as a good landlord and you protect yourself from possible legal action. Landlords can be held accountable if their tenants commit crimes on the premises as well as suffering costs related to housing code violations should tenants fail to keep the outside of the premises neat, leaving garbage or large items strewn about.
Basic tenant screening is not enough. Landlords often mistakenly believe that conducting a tenant credit check provides all the rental information needed to determine the best-qualified rental applicant. However, the fact is, credit checks provide no rental history or criminal history records whatsoever. The credit check is still essential because it provides landlords with a clear picture of a prospective tenant’s history of paying bills and accounts in a timely manner. As part of the landlord tenant screening process, AAOA provides the credit report as well as comprehensive tenant screening information that will help you select the ideal applicant to live in your rental property.
The eviction history report gives you the information needed to view an applicant’s prior tenant history. Has the tenant been evicted and if so, how long ago was the eviction? A single eviction years ago when the applicant lost a job or experienced temporary financial hardship does not necessarily mean the applicant would be a bad tenant now. However, an applicant with recent evictions for non-payment of rent or for other reasons such as conducting criminal activity on the premises of the rental property has is a bad tenant. This is likely a tenant you do not want to rent to.
The criminal records check gives you vital information on the criminal record of each of your rental applicants. Criminals often move about frequently, especially if running from an active warrant for their arrest or if conducting illegal activities such as selling drugs or conducting prostitution or other illicit activities on the property. With a criminal history report you can quickly and easily determine whether you need to rule out an applicant due to any brushes with the law.
The social security number fraud check is an essential component of every landlord’s tenant screening checks because applicants committing fraud may give you the social security number of a relative or friend or just make up a social security number to keep you from knowing their true identity. It is also imperative that you conduct the social security fraud alert check, as well as every other tenant screening check on every adult applicant, not just the primary applicant.
Never allow a rental applicant to avoid including the name and relevant information on every adult who will live in the household. This includes not only a spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend, but also adult children, parent or siblings and even a friend. This is because applicants often scheme to avoid including information on other adults to prevent landlords from discovering that adults other than the primary applicant have a history of evictions, a criminal history that may include currently hiding from probation or parole violations or failure to appear to answer to criminal charges. By failing to include every adult applicant on the rental application form, you could even potentially unknowingly have a sex offender living in your rental property. Including the sex offender and terrorist check in your AAOA tenant screening package saves you from the embarrassment of later public disclosure that a sex offender has been living in one of your rental properties or the horror associated with any new crimes these serious offenders may commit.
Tenant screening is essential every time you advertise a rental property as available. Do not fear the cost of tenant screening as it is often passed along to the tenant, as explained in the AAOA article “Can I Charge Applicant for Tenant Screening?”
Conducting comprehensive tenant screening can save you legal fees and the aggravation associated with discovering you rented to someone using a false identity or with a criminal or poor rental history. Tenant screening is a crucial element to properly renting to honest tenants who can pay rent on time and will take pride in your property.
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