The Importance of Tenant Background Checks

The Importance of Tenant Background Checks

The demand for rental properties is soaring! However, if you are a landlord, renting your property can be a stressful experience.

Finding the right tenants can be difficult. Selecting the right person can mean the difference between having a pleasant experience or a bad one. 

The best way to ensure that you have a good experience with tenants is to do a background check on them at all times. Tenant background checks are a step that you cannot afford not to take. Here are the main reasons why.

Ensure Safety With Tenant Background Checks

When you decide to rent your property to someone you need to think of the safety of those who are already in the building and the community in general. It is your moral responsibility to your community to ensure that your choice of tenants does not present a security risk to them. 

While you should never discriminate against someone just because they have a criminal record, the nature of the criminal history that a tenant screening uncovers can be enough to help you to decide whether or not someone presents a security risk to the community.

Protect Yourself from Liability

One of the main reasons why you should do a background check on a potential tenant is that you can be held liable if something goes wrong while the person is residing on your premises. This means that if you did not do due diligence during the tenant selection process and the person harms someone you can be held responsible.

While you cannot legally prevent someone from renting your property because they have a criminal record you can use their criminal history to prove is that they present a reasonable risk for the community. This can be grounds for denying an application.

Reduce Tenant Turnover

Reducing tenant turnover is important because it can be very stressful, and it can also rob you of valuable income. An effective way to reduce tenant turnover is by doing background checks. Background checks will help you to find out whether someone is likely to stay at the property on a long-term basis and whether they will be capable of paying the rent. 

Having a good knowledge of a potential renter's profile both professionally, personally, and financially can help you select the right candidates for renting your property and reduce turnover.

Choose Wisely

As you can see when you are renting a property choosing wisely is extremely important. The best way to ensure that you choose the right tenants for your property is to be informed.

A background check is one of the easiest ways to make sure that you have all the information about a candidate at your fingertips so that you can do due diligence and make the right decision for not only yourself but also those in your community. If you would like to learn more about rental properties, please contact us.

 

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