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Check, check and check again!One rule – all information and data submitted must be verifiable. This means checking pervious landlords, addresses, employment, career history, criminal declarations, in fact, any statement made and signed on the application to rent your property. Make it clear that as a responsible landlord, applications will be immediately discounted if any false information has been knowingly submitted or misrepresented. People can be fickle – applications may be modified, enhanced or vital details omitted in order to facilitate a rental application and end up with a roof over their head. Watch out especially for prospective tenants lying about where they live or have lived, their job or previous career, how much their salary is or has been and whether they have bona fide qualifications. They may even lie about family and friends. Once they have secured a property, they will be unreliable payers, unscrupulous about guests, regulations, activities and the landlord will ultimately pay a hefty price for his lack of investigation and fact-checking. It’s a common problem - every landlord knows that bad tenants lie, which makes it a mystery why so little verification goes on at the stage of a rental application. It could be a combination of not having time, energy, resources or even the inclination if a hard to shift property is about to be signed off and the mortgage payment is looming. Often references turn out to be just referrals to friends to back up an application but it is never worth the inherent risk of presuming that everything on the form is valid, accurate and reliable. So here’s a guide to how to verify everything to ensure that mistakes don’t happen further along the line with a costly price to pay. It is worth compiling a checklist for the future so that there are no loopholes in your system. The first point is to examine the rental application form and check that every space has been filled in. If the applicant has left something out, this can’t be checked so there should be entries and answers to every question in every field. Landlords in the past have sometimes been too hasty in accepting a seemingly complete form which may be missing vital information. If a gap is identified, remedial action must be taken. There’s little point in ignoring this, you need to pick up the phone, call the applicant and complete the jigsaw bearing in mind that unreliable tenants may know that they have omitted vital details and refuse the call. Some landlords accept applications on a first come, first served, first completed basis and will rent properties out to the first qualified applicant to have filled out the form accurately. It still pays to chase up references and verify history so that the integrity of the applicant can be ascertained. When you have the completed form in front of you, read through it. Check first off for any missing information. If the applicant is right there with you, ask him or her to supply details if appropriate and hand the form back for completion. It makes good sense to note the date and time received on the top of the form and make a double check that the person submitting the form is the same as the applicant. For example, ask him/her for their driving licence or photo ID which will verify their appearance and address. Take a photocopy. When you have time to peruse the form, verify details like employment, current address, previous address and date of birth. Ask yourself whether the applicant appeared to be the same age as reported on his/her documentation. For effective double checks, ring the applicant and ask for some key data, such as date of birth, bank sort code or national insurance number. Don’t read it back – let the information come directly from the applicant. It’s quite straight forward to check employer details and make a quick call to establish that the applicant is employed and has a regular income. Now make sure all the other information submitted tallies with that provided on the rental application, such as amount of income and the start date. For a large employer, you can verify that the applicant works there, that he is full-time or part-time and how long he’s been in post. Personnel offices won't say much more citing data protection. If the applicant works for a family business, ask to see some paperwork, anything that will validate this claim. A sensible next step would be to confirm that the person the applicant claims is the landlord actually is the owner of the property (or the manager) of his previous address. This could be information available on the Internet or else you could make a call to the local authority. Try tracing the owner in the phone book – some people are ex-directory and there’s a huge mobile culture these days so it may not be a reliable way of verifying who’s who. If the landlord is purported to be a property manager, there should be a listing either in the phone book or on the Internet. There are occasions when applicants cite friends and colleagues as having various job titles. Students need to be able to prove to your satisfaction that they are enrolled in college. This can come from a receipt for tuition fees or a formal document from their college or university department and a photo ID card, or anything else that looks legitimate. Finally, if anything doesn't add up or can't be verified, it’s best to reject the applicant. If you have suspicions, pursue them and don’t settle until you have reached closure. Property to let in Leeds, property, rentals, sales, information, city guide, Artful Lodger Leeds! |
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