Things To Consider When Getting A Credit Check On Prospective Tenants
Credit checks are standard operating procedure when renting property nowadays. It can be as simple as the landlord calling up the prospective tenant’s current and previous landlords and employer to inquire about employment and rental history, or the landlord paying an agency to do this for him.
The reason for running credit checks is to minimize the risk on the part of the property owner. As much as landlords would want to weed out applicants who are likely to cause issues later on.
Whenever someone applies for a lease they have to put their name, address, social security number and when they were born on the form. This is all you need to do a decent credit check on them.
All landlords are required to inform possible tenants they are going to perform a credit check. Usually this notice is found on the application and the interested tenant has to sign a consent form before the landlord can run a credit check.
If not, then you should get this consent on another form, as it is vital that you have permission. No matter how you get it, make sure you do.
When landlords receive a lot of interest in their rental property, they will often seek out the aid from agencies to perform credit checks on their behalf. The downside of hiring an agency is the cost. Any expenses accumulated during the credit check will be the applicants’ responsibility and not the landlords.
Depending on whom you use, the company will either give you a price for each check or they will charge an annual amount for you to subscribe to their service. As well as doing normal credit checks, they will often be able to scrutinize employment and criminal pasts, former rental issues, insolvencies and all other pertinent information.
When a person doesn’t meet the landlord’s requirements, the landlord must notify in writing that they did not meet requirements. It is not required to disclose any details, but it must mention that the decision was made based on the credit check. This must be done in order to meet the terms of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
The author has been blogging on personal finance for the previous three years. Moreover, this individual takes pleasure in writing regarding New York neighborhoods, such as Chinatown condos along with Lincoln Center apartments.
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