Dealing with tenants who damage and destroy property

The Albert Lea Tribune has a three part series about landlord and tenant rights, especially with regard to problem tenants.  Albert Lea landlords and property owners are having a problem with tenants or leave trash or destory property when they leave or are evicted. 

Local landlord Lanier Pratt, who with his business partner owns about 40 rental units, said there has been more than a dozen times when it has cost him more than the security deposit to clean an apartment and get it ready for the next renter.

The obvious answer to this problem is to increase the security deposit for the next tenant.  But this might not be possible with the market conditions of that particular rental area.  Another issue they discuss is relevance of tenant background checks.

He tries to do background checks as best he can — including getting criminal background checks and credit reports — but that’s never been a good determining factor of what a tenant’s going to be, he said.

While a criminal background check is good vehicle for eliminating those egregiously odious applicants, what about those who aren’t criminals?  The other report to really look into and evaluate is the tenant credit report.  It’s important to look beyond just the FICO score and try to determine their current cash flow.  Also look at their history of debt repayment.  Do they have any bankruptcies?  Do they have lot of accounts that are in collections or written off as bad debt?  This are potential signs of a tenant who doesn’t have fidiciary responsiblity to pay rent every month on the 1st. 

But going beyond that, what about a tenant who might trash the place?  We comment conducting an eviction records search, as wells a civil lawsuit or civil judgement in their previous area of residence.  You can see the previous litigious matters your prospective tenant has been involved.  Chances are if he trashes your place, he’s probably trashed another previous apartment.  Go search for this information and protect your investment.

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