What is the best way to get information about prospective tenants? I want to do a credit check and a criminal background check. Do evictions show up on the criminal background checks? I’ve heard of companies such as e-renter.com that purportedly do all the checks a landlord needs. How are these services? Any advice is appreciated.
JP
I’ve never used any of the LL type services. One area we invest in has a website where you can search public records for anyone for free. It shows misdemeanors, felonies, traffic tickets, etc. The other area we invest in doesn’t have anything like that. We have to pay the county Sheriff’s office $10/person for background checks. We charge $15 for an app fee for one person or $25 for two here so we cover the background check fee and a few bucks for our trouble (and gas) to check them out. I also call the eviction court here to check if our applicants have been evicted. Apparently we’re some of the only LLs in town who do that because the ladies we deal with know us by name.
With all that and then also doing income verification, we cover quite a bit. I feel better about what we cover vs. having some dot com company doing searches.
jfpen,
One other thing to do, get a list of banned dog breeds from your insurance agent. Then screen the people on the phone so you don’t waste time going to meet them if they have these dogs.
I don’t use the screening services.
I’ve been called one time by a screening service. I was asked if the tenant paid the rent no more than 30 days late.
Yes, rent was paid. Then I tried to tell him that the tenant had 2 dogs over 100 pounds each and that I’d given the tenant notice to move out when he’d been there less than a week.
The screener cut me off and informed me that he didn’t want to hear it. All he wanted to know was whether the rent had been paid.
I felt sorry for the landlord that paid for that screening and got stuck with that miserable sod of a tenant.
I hope that most screening services are better than that, but I prefer to do my own screening because I know that I don’t cut corners.
After being unsuccessfully sued many times by former tenants, if someone called me asking about a former tenant, I just tell them it’s company policy only to verify that they lived here.
Last thing you need is to give some young stinkbag lawyer on contingency fees additional ammunition in wasting your time with a ridiculous case against you with a statement from a screener about that ex-tenant who was denied a place because of a bad reference you gave.
A thorough application, a credit check, good interviewing skills, and verification of where their money is coming from is all that’s needed really.
Dave,
I haven’t had this happen yet because we’ve really yet to have anyone move out on us in the past three years we’ve been doing this. What are you legally allowed to say about either a current tenant of yours who has applied to live somewhere else or a former tenant if you are asked for a reference? Can you at least state facts like they paid late this many times, broke these items, etc?
I rarely have it happen by tenants I put into my buildings, but when I buy another apartment building I end up evicting a bunch of troublemakers that pm companies put in there. I’ve been sued for everything from $100K slip and falls two years after they’ve moved out to harassment to fictional mold to alleged bed bugs or fleas contaminating their possessions which they claimed to have thrown out and claim I owe them $20K for new furniture, furnishings and clothing. You name it and I’ve had ex tenants try to sue me for it and lose. Well, not everything–I have yet to have a fire in one of my apartments that an ex-tenant could sue me for.
It doesn’t matter what the law says you can or can’t do. That’s all theoretical. The lawyers will always find a way to twist those statements and reinvent the law and tenants will also add a bunch of made up stuff to help their case. It’s not worth the trouble. When they move out, they are not your problem anymore. Let them find another target to sue. If a tenant asks, you tell them what your company policy is. If you want to spend your nights stressed out thinking how you’re going to answer their bogus complaints when you’re close to your court date, be my guest.