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Proposed renter background checks wouldn’t include BYU students
Renter background checks is a smart move for any landlord or property manager. KSL.COM just published an article showing that Provo City is considering background checks for all citizens except for BYU students. Apparently the assumption is that college students are less likely to commit crimes because they follow the college’s code of conduct. As a smart landlord, we recommend running background checks on all college students. While they have guaranteed funding from their parents, it is worth it determine which potential renter has already developed poor credit and a possible criminal record. Provo City would be advised to not show favoritism to college students as all it takes is one incident with a bad student to open them up to some sort of liability situation. Be smart and run credit checks and criminal records searches on all your prospective tenants.
Difficult times for landlords and tenants
The bad economy is causing difficulties for landlords and tenants. Landlords are having a hard time collecting rent and evictions are on the rise. Tenants wages are not keeping up with the cost of living. Recently in Yonkers, tenants and landlords met with the Westchester County Rent Guidelines Committee ti discuss the issue.
Sounding much more dire than in past years, some landlords said they are essentially down to no profit and are having to sell their regulated buildings. One owner warned that it could get bad enough that owners might begin abandoning buildings like they did in the early 1990s.
If you’re just getting in the landlord business, it’s more important than ever to screen your potential tenants. While you can always evict a problem tenant, it’s a costly experience and takes a long time. Protect yourself from the start by thoroughly screening your tenants with tenant background check. We recommend running a tenant credit report, which will show their current debt obligations, debt-to-income ratios, previous late payments, and any loans they have failed to pay back, or bankruptcy. In these times it’s important to verify income, so ask for a paycheck stub. Compare this information to the credit report; some people live outside their means and you may want to pick a tenant that is not heavily leveraged.
It’s important to know the laws and statutes of your city, county, state and federal for your area. Keep these in mind before you begin your journey as a landlord.
Check your potential tenants criminal record
Make sure you check out your potential tenant’s criminal history before you offer them the apartment or your home. An instant criminal database search is a fast way to protect yourself and other tenants by finding out your renter’s criminal history. You can go further and conduct hand pulled criminal record searches in the county courthouses where your renter has lived, but these searches can take two or three business days depending on the courthouse. Some counties take even longer.
When screening your tenants make sure “the investigation does not exceed the limits set by state and federal law.” The Los Angeles Times recently listed some instruction for California landlords.
Since a background check is considered to be a “consumer credit report,” it is governed by California Civil Code Section 1785.13. This statute prohibits screening agencies from using arrest records, indictments or misdemeanor complaints that did not result in convictions. This statute also prohibits the use of convictions that occurred more than seven years before the check.
Under the state and federal fair housing laws, the use of criminal screening, like any other type of screening, must be applied evenly, across-the-board rather than selectively based on certain profiles or stereotypes.
Renting out your home
Chicago Sun times discusses the pros and cons of renting out your old home while you wait for it to sell. In this tough selling environment, renting your home can be a good source of income to cover the mortage. However, becoming a landlord can be a time consuming task if you haven’t done it before.
Rental income can cover some or all of the mortgage payments, freeing you from having to dole out the entire amount each month. You might even make a profit if your monthly expense is low enough.
The problems arise from the human element of dealing with your tenants. It’s best to learn the local laws regarding your rights and responsibilities.
Disputes with tenants over tenant rights and unpaid rent could require legal representation and legal fees. – State, local and federal statutes must be understood and followed, with failure to do so often resulting in fines.
Always establish and maintain lines of communication with your tenants, and make sure they understand the terms of the lease. One of the best ways to protect yourself from problem tenants is to run background checks on them. With a signed release, you can run your prospective tenant’s credit history, criminal history, and eviction records. Most background checks for tenant screening are instant, but you can also conduct a more thorough review of county house records if you feel it is important. The credit report will provide you with valuable information about your tenant’s financial responsibility.
Tips for New Landlords
Everything about landlord has a great tip list for prospective landlords. As with any new business decision, it’s important to conduct your own feasibility study and prepare a business plan. The emphasis here is on research and analysis. While you may be passionate about becoming a new landlord, it’s important to conduct your research and then examine the facts with discerning mind, not clouded by emotion. Sometimes the best business decision is not to go into business, at least, maybe not right now.
The article recommends speaking to other landlords, and this is sage advice. Find out the problems they are currently facing. Is it a renter’s market? What are the local ordinances and regulations? Have they had problem tenants and how did they resolve the issue? Dealing with tenants can eat up alot of your time so it’s important to establish proper communication channels and prepare your maintenance and repair plan. Do you need to hire a onsite maintenance person? Do you want to have a plummer and electrican that you keep on retainer?
When it comes to collecting rent that is due, it’s important to stay on top of your business. There are software programs that can help with property managements. One of the best ways to insure that you will get paid is to conduct background checks on all your prospective tenants. The most important search to run is a tenant credit report, which will provide you with a snapshot of your prospective tenant’s financial responsibility. If they haven’t been responsible with previous accounts, there’s a good chance they won’t respect or won’t be able to honor the financial contract with you. It’s much more expensive to evict, so do yourself a favor and establish a tenant creport report screening program.
Background Check your Potential Roommate
The Wall Street journal had a great article about checking out your potential roomates. They say that “twentysomethings are often too trusting of people they meet through, say, craigslist.org or apartment-finder Web sites” This can lead to big problems if you move in and your new roommate refuses or cannot pay their share of the rent. You can be stuck giving them loans and, if you cannot cover the amount, your landlord may evict both of you. This can effect your ability to secure another apartment. In this situation you are much better off renting a studio, bachelor of one bedroom apartment.
The WSJ provided an excellent list of suggestions for checking our your potential roommate, short of running a complete background check.
Ask the person for a recent credit report. Consumers can get one report free once a year from each of the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, TransUnion and Experian Group — by going to the Web site AnnualCreditReport.com. Look for warning signs like overwhelming amounts of debt and missed or late credit-card and utility payments. For more on how to read a credit report, go to Web site myfico.com.
• Obtain proof of employment and salary. Ask for recent pay stubs or tax returns. Or call a potential roommate’s current and past employers (with the person’s consent). The human resources department can provide proof of employment, term employed and salary.
• Check references. Call the person’s current landlord. Then, talk to the landlord before that. “The current landlord has every incentive to paint a false, rosy picture just to have a poor tenant leave,” Ms. Portman of Nolo says. Interview any current roommates and visit your potential roommates at their homes to get an idea of how they live. Experts say criminal background checks are often unnecessary — and generally unhelpful if a person is from out of state.
• Put It in Writing. Once you choose a roommate, you should both sign an agreement specifying the rent amount and due date, how to handle utility, cable and Internet-access bills and terms of potential departure.
Roommates can provide some of the greatest benefits for living away from home. Using this tips can help you avoid the potential problems that will affect your credit history for years.
Tenants: Read your lease before you sign
A new article in Fox 16 Arkansas provides some tips for renters in dealing with disputs with landlords in the state of Arkansas.
Many states have laws that offer extra protection for the tenant when it comes to relationships with landlords. But in Arkansas, renters have to look out for themselves.
So what rights do you have as a renter? Experts say your power is in your lease. Know what you’re signing before you reach the dotted line.
As a landlord, be aware that potential problems with truly responsible tenants can arise from a perception of inattention or carelessness. Just like any business, consider your tenants as your clients and seek to provide them with the best service when they truly need it. A good opportunity is when they make their first maintenance call. If you provide prompt attention to the problem, you will generate good will with your tenants. And this goodwill has dividends especially during a renter’s market. The current real estate situation is makes leased residental housing more attractive to typical apartment renters. As an apartment landlord you will be able to cash in on the good you have generated. Your tenant may not want to move from the certainty of your arrangment to the uncertainty of a cheaper rented house.
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.
Tips for Reluctant Landlords: Check the background of all Applicants
Reluctant to sell your home or residential real estate property? Consider becoming a landlord and renting it out. First time landlords need alot of help. One of the best ways to prevent future problems with tenants is to conduct a background check on all prospective tenants or applicants. Landlords should run a credit check to determine their financial responsibility and also conduct a search for any eviction records. Also advisable is running a criminal records seaches, which can either be an instant criminal database search or a comprehensive search of county criminal records by a trained network of court researchers.
With tenantchecker.com, we can provide you with the tenant screening services you need to make the right decision about your applicants.
SOMA landlords charged with terrorizing tenants
Stunning allegations emerge in lawsuit filed against landlords who allegedly waged a campaign of terror against tenant in order to force them to leave. Landlords bought the building and tried to get the former tenant to leave after they succesfully fought the evictions.
When one of the tenants, Scott Morrow, successfully fought eviction, the couple allegedly told workers in September 2006 to cut the beams that supported his apartment’s floor. They also shut off Morrow’s electricity, cut his phone line and had workers saw a hole in his living room floor from below, prosecutors said. Morrow has since sued the Macys.
The couple were also charged with terrorizing two other tenants in the building who began paying the Macys reduced rent after concluding that they were being overcharged under the city’s rent control law.
Landlords, especially new speculative landlords, be aware of the potentially distrastrous Public Relations and Criminal nightware that awaits you if you do skirt the law with regard to tenant evictions. When purchasing a new building be aware of the local lows and landlord/tenant ordinances. Your business integrity and future in on the line.
