What Landlords Need to Know About Background Checks
If you are planning on renting out your home, or if you are in the rental property business, it has become vital to perform background checks on prospective tenants. This process can save you hundreds of dollars in damage, back rent and ensure that you’ll have at least some degree of peace of mind when you entrust your rental property to someone new. In order to run a background check on a prospective tenant you will need to collect the following information: 1. Their complete name and last known address. This will allow you to narrow down the results if you have several similar names returned. Try to get your applicant’s middle name to further assist you in this process. The last known address will also assist you in finding out if there are any past disputes in your applicant’s history. If they do not wish to provide this information, or if they give you false information, it’s a good sign that they had a dispute of some sort with their landlord in the past. 2. Their social security number. This is a vital piece of information that you will need to collect to perform a background check. We require a social security number to make sure that you are getting the most accurate results for your search. Without this number, it can be very difficult to make sure that you have the correct person’s criminal history or background. 3. A copy of their driver’s license. Getting a copy of your applicant’s driver’s license can be beneficial in order to reference their complete name and in some states, their social security number. Their driver’s license number may be useful for credit reports or other background checks that require this information. 4. Their signature. Before you can perform a background check or a credit check on a prospective tenant you will need to have them sign a release that they are aware that you will be performing this check. This will help cover your legal interests and in some states, it may be required before running a check. It is a good idea to have a separate release form that can be attached to your rental application. Now that you know what you need, here are some tips on how to avoid any potential conflicts. 1. Thoroughly document the entire application and background check process. As a landlord, it is very important to avoid any discrimination claims if you deny an applicant’s application. Make sure to state on your application that you will be performing a check on their background and that adverse information may mean that their application will be denied. 2. Ask your applicants to provide the background check fee. As a landlord with potentially hundreds of applicants, the prospect of paying for each individual background check can be daunting and unreasonably expensive. Many landlords ask their applicants to provide this fee, which works in two ways: First, it helps cover your costs and secondly, it helps weed out people who may not want a background check performed. You can easily protect your property by taking a few extra steps in the application process and running background checks. The time you spend will be well worth it over the long term.
