Jun 26 2007
10 Tips For Your Rental Application
The first step in ensuring that you protect your rights as a Landlord begins with the Application of the prospective tenant. Your application should provide you with all the information you will need to accurately judge the applicant worthiness. You should also take this opportunity to begin collecting information that may be useful in the future should the applicant become a tenant that you need to find later. Here are 10 tips on ensuring that you have your bases covered in the Rental Application process.
- Make sure your application is proper and legal and does not violate any fair housing laws or local laws.
- Include a small section of text briefly detailing your qualifying standards and permission for the landlord to check all sources in evaluating their application for tenancy.
- Include a phrase stating an "incomplete/inaccurate application" is a reason to be disqualified or not approved. Their signature line is below this small bit of text.
- DO ask for several phone numbers ? home, work, cell, pager, etc.
- DON'T ask "Do you have pets?". This phrase almost automatically implies the landlord does not accept animals and your applicant will almost always answer this question with a "No". Instead ask "Number of pets" and "What breed/type". Phrasing the question this way makes it appear that you accepts pets even if you don't and will entice the applicant to provide a truthful answer..
- DON'T ask "Have you ever been evicted" Instead ask "Has an eviction ever been filed against you"? Many times the applicant has a problem reading this question correctly. Even when confronted with false information on the application, the Applicant who answered this question with zero or None will respond "I've never been evicted!". Unfortunately, that is not the question. Sometimes the tenant has had evictions filed and landlord has lost the eviction.
- DON'T ask about a question using "family" or "children". Using those terms is like pasting a "sue me" sign on your forehead…and unfortunately the applicant will win if they do. If you are using those terms, STOP IT NOW. Substitute the phrase "Names and birthdates of all people who will be living in the household".
- DO ask the question "Have you ever broken a lease or been asked to leave during a lease term?". I also have this on the list of questions that I ask the previous landlords. Sometimes the best way to get rid of a tenant is to just ask them to leave….sometimes even offering an incentive to get them to go. This is not the type of tenant you want to bring into your rental.
- DO ask the question "Have you been late 2 or more times with your rent/mortgage payment in the last year?". You'll be amazed at the excuses that you can get with this one. Again, this is one question that I always ask the previous landlord's also.
- Emergency contacts. This section includes the phrase "including non-payment of rent". This is an emergency. I also include this phrase right above the emergency contact information section in my rental agreement. This is powerful and allows you to contact these folks if they get behind on their rent. Yes, your tenant might throw a fit the first time you contact their relative, but you remind them they instructed you to do so on both their application and rental agreement. After perhaps some embarrassment, I have found this to be a powerful tenant training tool. They will make sure rent is paid on time to prevent their emergency contacts from being notified.
Hopefully these tips for your residential lease application will help you in your screening process for prospective tenants. If you have any other items you think are a must have, please let me know.
web log for us – those that protect our interests right from the start
Related Posts
Pre-screening for the Right Tenant
Good article but there’s one item that’s incorrect, at least in San Francisco: “Have you ever broken a lease or been asked to leave during a lease term?”
This is pretty common here– and can be a good thing for everyone involved. For example, it can happen when a landlord wants to turn something from an apartment into a condo, or to do a major property upgrade, or to have relatives or friends move it.
Instead of “Have you ever…?” how about “Please describe any times you’ve had to…”
Cheers!
Joel
Hey there Joel. I’m in your city for a couple days as I write this. Beautiful city but much colder than I expected. Sorry it took so long to get the comment in. Something funky happened to the email account that notifies me of comments.
Anyway, I hadn’t thought about that. You are absolutely correct that there could be a legitimate reason for being asked to leave. On my application I do have a spot next to the question for an explanation. I wouldn’t hold a valid reason against a prospective tenant as long as the landlord validates the reason.
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
Sorry to hear that. Let me know why. The above has worked well for me so far.
Is it okay to ask if you’ve ever been convicted of a felony?
Sure, you can ask. I’ll even answer. No, I have never been convicted of a felony. Knock-on-wood I’ve never been convicted of a misdemeanor either. I’ve received some parking tickets and moving violations in my past but that was about the extent of my law breaking.
All kidding aside, I am sure you were asking if you can ask if a potential tenant has ever been convicted of a Felony. Absolutely. I go so far as to have a question on my rental app asking if you have ever ben arrested. That question gives a bit more information just in case the case is “pending”.
What if the renter has five years of great rental history, but an eviction before that? Should I accept this tenant in your oppinion? Would an apartment complex?
On my application I have a question “Have you ever been evicted”. If they answered yes to that and stated it was a long time ago I would probably accept them, unless I had an equal candidate to them that didn’t have an eviction on their record.
I would verify everything with the previous landlord and also with the courts to make sure they were telling the truth about it.
If they lied on the application I would reject them. I had that happen once. I keep separate applications for couples. The husband fills one out and the wife fills one out. They both answered “No” to the “Have you ever been evicted” question. He was telling the truth, she was not. In all probability the eviction was on both of them since they were married for 20 years. The was most likely in her name only so the eviction showed up as only hers. Either way, they were rejected for lying on the application.