Tenant Screening Questions

In a world, where trusting someone is becoming increasingly difficult and taking proper security measures has become a necessity, it is important to always rent out your property after a lot of care and proper screening. It is essential that you know that the person you are renting out your house to is someone who is responsible and someone who will fulfill all the duties expected of a good tenant. To ensure that you rent out your property to someone who can be trusted with it, it may be a good idea to have a stage of weeding out unwanted applications. This can be done by asking them some important questions during the screening process. In this article, we give you a list of questions that you can ask a prospective tenant.

Screening Your Tenants

If you want to avoid the hassle of having tenants who do not pay their rent on time and who do not take care of the property, it is important that you take the time and effort to check them out. This includes proper verification of employment, verification with previous landlords, checking credit reports, and if required, a civil and criminal background check. Verification of information is extremely important when you are giving out your property on rent. If there is even the tiniest of information on the application that you cannot verify, then it may be a good idea to deny the application that you have at hand outright. There are some very important questions that you can ask tenants before you rent out your property to them. Given below are some of these important questions that you can use if you are conducting tenant screening.

• Is this your first time at renting property from someone or have you taken property on rent before?
• If you are currently staying on rent, would it be possible for you to give us the name and address of your current landlord?
• Can you give us the time period for which you have been renting this property from your landlord?
• Will your landlord agree to provide a reference for you?
• Can you give us details regarding your employment, as in where you work and at what position?
• Have you ever been convicted of something and if yes, why?
• Would you have an issue with us visiting or contacting your present landlord?
• Can you provide us with copies of your driver's license and your social security numbers for purpose of identification and verification?
• Do you intend to stay in this property alone or would you be staying here with your family? If you are staying with your family, then we would need details about all the occupants of the house.
• Would it be possible for you to give us the contact details of a friend or a family member who can verify information for us?
• Would it be possible for you to give us two salary slips and file it with your application to rent the property?
• Have you ever been evicted from any of the properties that you have rented in the past? If yes, then why?
• Have there been any complaints that have been filed against you with the landlord by neighbors for any sort of disruption?
• Would you have a problem if we called up the references that you have provided us with, for verification of information?

These are just some of the questions that you can ask prospective tenants. It is always important to confirm all the information that they provide you with by contacting previous landlords. It may also be a good idea to pay a surprise visit to the house that they are currently staying in. If you are still suspicious of the details provided, choose to talk to neighbors. If you want to conduct a background check, then your local police department may be able to give you information. It is an age-old adage that it is always better to be safe than sorry. While asking these questions may seem rude or even a violation of privacy, it can help save you from a lot of trouble in the future.