A Rental Application should be thought of as a way to screen applicants past and present behavior in order to better predict future behavior. Screening an applicant's past credit & work history will allow you to make informed decisions when choosing a prospective tenant. However, the rental application should also contain personal contacts should you ever need to locate the tenant for debt collection.
Of course the most critical piece of information is the applicants full name including middle, as well as their date of birth and social security number. The SSN is crucial because the three credit bureaus use it to locate and extract credit data on the person. Credit bureaus will be able to verify the SSN given by the applicant, as well as provide 5 to 7 years of past address information.
If on the credit and/or Social Security report no past address data is shown, the landlord should take this as a sign that the applicant has been trying to avoid applying for credit, and thus, could be attempting to avoid a collection. If the report comes back as "unverified SSN", be careful, the applicant could be trying to use someone else's SSN. Ask for 2 forms of identification, including their social security card. This happens more frequently than most people think, especially if they have been denied an apartment in the past.
A second piece of crucial information that should be on the rental agreement is the current and past addresses of the applicant. You should ask for them to provide their addresses for the past 5 years. Do this because eviction notices only include a name and address, no other information. This is the only info that the court has when it completes an eviction, the sole identifiers.
If you notice an applicant has had several evictions filed in the past, it may indicate that they are a chronic late payer. Gathering as much information as you can will allow you to better compare names and addresses on an eviction notice to those on a social security number Trace Report, as well as with the rental application.
Screening a rental application is in some respects akin to being a good detective. You must take all information into consideration, perform a risk analysis of the data and make an informed decision about whether or not to rent to the applicant. Many felons that move from state to state believe that they can hide past discrepancies. So if an applicant doesn't want to give you their address for the past 5 years, or if the SSN trace doesn't match the data provided on the application, consider this a caution sign and ask more questions.
In most cases an applicant will become much more clear and concise when they see you are serious about obtaining more information. They may willingly explain any credit problems they had, or past eviction notices they had received. Let them speak, you may find their reasons are understandable and you can work with them. Other times they may try to lie, and it's your job to get the truth.
Thus far you received some very relevant factors in determining tenant suitability. However, there are times when you simply just don't know whether or not an applicant will be a good resident. Below are a few questions you can ask; you may be surprised how often an applicant answers "yes".
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN?
Sued For non-payment of rent?
Had an eviction filed Against you?
Sued for damage to rental property?
HAVE YOU EVER:
Broken a rental agreement or lease?
Filed bankruptcy? Was it dismissed?
Lastly, to protect yourself and allow you to pull any screening information that you may need, there is a simple yet powerful sentence that should be used at the bottom of your rental application:
"I authorize the Landlord and their agents, including any collection authority, to obtain further address and employment information, and any necessary background screening information before, during and after the lease term for the purposes of collecting past due lease payments, late fees or any other charges that are owed to the Landlord."
Brian Davis is a real estate investor and landlord out of Baltimore, who also contributes educational content to EZ Landlord Forms, an online resource that supplies a free rental application and a free rental agreement.
- Article Word Count: 681
- |
- Total Views: 13
- |
- permalink