"Tenant Background Check Form"

How to Do a Background Check on a Tenant?

Most property managers apply for outsourced lodger evaluating services that do the assessment by making inquiries, gathering all the information on a potential resident, and producing a report. Nevertheless, landlords and property managers can run the screening themselves before allowing a prospective leaseholder to sign a lease. A comprehensive Tenant Background Check consists of the following steps:

1. Obtaining authorization from the potential resident. Have the applicant complete a Background Check Authorization form. The form should include particular fields: full name and signature, date of birth and address, social security number, annual income, spouse information, and personal references.
2. Credit and background check. After getting information from a potential renter, it is necessary to order a credit report and a background check. A credit report will allow a property manager to evaluate a prospective lodger's credit history and current debt. A background check will show a lodger's history of evictions and criminal record.
3. Contacting previous landlords and the leaseholder's employer. When contacting a renter's former landlord it is important to not only understand if the leaseholder paid on time, but also whether the renter caused any damage to the landlord's property, had problems with neighbors, and what the former landlord thought about renting to this resident. Contacting the renter's current employer will verify the information about the resident's employment and show if the renter has a stable and reliable income. If you are following up with the previous employers you can ask why a prospective leaseholder left the job.

It is important to remember that the scanning process should have consistent requirements for every applicant and shouldn't be changed based on who is applying.

What Does a Tenant Background Check Consist of?

When completing a Tenant Background Check for a potential lodger, it is necessary to pay attention to several details that might be a sign of future problems. "Red flags" worth being taken into consideration might be:

• Bad Payment History. If a potential renter has a history of making late payments, it is very unlikely that the monthly fee will be paid on time. In that case, it might be practical to set additional rental requirements, for example, a larger deposit;
• Evictions. If an eviction action was filed against the renter it might be a good idea for the landlord to reconsider signing the lease with the potential lodger and deny the application;
• Financial Stability and Lawsuits. Financial stability is something any landlord would look for in a prospective resident, thus it's important to pay attention to the leaseholder's employment status, income, and whether there are any lawsuits filed against them. Though there's no direct connection between annual income and lawsuits, some of them may end up a large financial obligation that will make it difficult to pay their monthly fee in the future.

Related Forms and Templates:

• Lease Addendum Template;
• Cosigner Agreement Template.