Is a sex offender living in one of your units? How do you know? You may be checking your tenants credit score and possible eviction history, but you should consider conducting criminal background checks as well.   By ordering even an Instant Nationwide Criminal Database search you can verify whether your prospective tenant is a registered sex offender.    In addition, criminal databases from around the country we also include access to 50 states sex offender registries.  

You can pass the cost of the criminal background check to the tenant, as part of the application process, including the credit report.

What happens if you do hire a sex offender or a criminal and something bad happens in your building or area?  According to an article in Habitat Magazine, if a landlord or Co-Op could have forseen that something bad happening by implementing a background screening system for all tenants, then they might be seen as negligent.  “The failure to check — in certain instances — may be negligent.”

According to a recent article on Fox, property owners in Memphis, Tennessee are watching their neighborhoods turn to blight as the properties around them fall into disrepair, become abandoned with overgrown lawns and attract squatters and criminal activity.  Some property owners say that the property maintenance is the responsibility of the tenants.   Dr. Phyllis Betts, the director of the “Center for Community Building and Neighborhood Action” suggested tenant screening as a solution to reducing neighborhood blight.   Conducting background checks on your tenants will provide you with a portrait of your prospective tenants past behavior including criminal activity and financial responsibility.   Running an eviction search can give you enough information to determine if you want to risk having a tenant in your property who has already failed to pay back a previous property owner.  

The trouble in this recesssion is that even people with good credit are having a hard time paying their bills.   A credit report is only as good as the moment it was taken.  Insisting on proof of employment is a valuable way to make sure you tenant can at least pay next months rent.  But what about four months from now? after your tenant has moved in.  Are you noticing signs of problems?  Have the checks been arriving later and later in the month?  Are you charging late fees?  Is your tenant dating their checks for later in the month?  Are you feeling squeezed?  It’s difficult to know the right thing to do.  Always adhere to the local, state, and nationals laws about housing.  It is worth maintaining a line of communication with your tenant.  Maintain accurate and current contact information for your tenant.  Should they decide to skip town without paying rent, contact information will assist with locating and collecting any judgments you obtain.

A recent article in HeraldNet discusses a rise in bad landlords in Everett.   Due to the recession,  landlords have had their work cut out for them.  Cash strapped tenants are paying rent late or not at all, damaging property and skipping town.  Landlords are finding it hard to maintain property safety and grounds keeping, clean water and perimeter security.   In a landlords haste to rent a property they may quickly install a new tenant in an apartment without conducting even a basic tenant background check, which can easily be down with a credit report, a nationwide criminal database search, and an eviction records search.   Additional research can include county criminal record searches in the county courthouses, as well as employment and income verification. 

Landlords need to realize they will save money in the long run by investing in tenant background checks.   A properly screened tenant is about as good a testament of future behavior is you can get.  You can’t always predict if someone is going to lose your job and get divorced and lose their source of income, but at least you will know that up to that point their credit has not been affected.  At least with a tenant like that, they will work with you to pay a rent.   You can avoid the repeat offenders with a simple credit report.

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The examiner.com posted a recent article about the importance of background screening residential tenants.    The article talks about the importance of running tenant credit reports, conducting reference verifications, and screening for criminal history.    The author C arlos Cooper applies some common sense advice about evaluating the results of the background check report.  For example, credit history is an important determinant of your prospective tenant’s ability to pay, however, because of the current economic crisis, good credit doesn’t count for much if your tenant has recently lost their employment.    Conduct references from “landlord, employer, and banking institution”  While it is important to verify employment, be aware that employers may not provide an expansive portrait of your tenants character for fear of litigation.   They will verify dates of employment, employment status, title, which is really all you need.   Seek additional details from prior landlord.

Eviction Records
We would also add that checking for Eviction Records is an important aspect of tenant screening.  While anyone could be struck with hard luck during this economic crisis, be aware that a previous pattern of evictions shows how much respect your prospective tenant has for the contract you are about to sign.

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for more information, contact Tenantchecker.com

More communities are providing forums to help landlords and property owners understand their rights and help them engage effectively with their tenants.  Champlin Minnesota is the newest community to encourage this behavior, which a forum that occurred on May 14th, the second annual landlord forum. 

In addition to discussing low interest loans for property repair, using the Internet to link potential tenants and landlords, they also discussed the important of Tenant Screening.  Large multi-occupancy housing complexes are their own communities and landlords are advised to effectively screen all tenants to protect their communities and their local housing reputation.  All it takes is one bad seed to destroy a neighborhood. Landlords can avoid most negligence lawsuits by conducting a tenant screening program that including credit history report, eviction records, criminal records search, as well as employment verification. 

Predicting future tenant behavior

While you cannot foretell the future, awareness of previous eviction records and horrible credit history are a red flag and shows you how your prospective tenant dealt with financial responsibility in the past.   Unless they have newly discovered financial responsibility and are seeking to turn their lives around, what evidence do you have that they will pay rent ever month and not damage the apartment?

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Have you received an eviction notice even though you have paid your rent on time?  Chances are that the property owners are in foreclosure.  According to CBS, renters and tenants in Los Angeles are getting evicted in record numbers due to foreclosure by the owners of the property.

35,000 housing units are currently in default within the city of Los Angeles, and are at risk of being lost by their owners. A large percentage of those homes are occupied by renters who face eviction as their residences are sold.

California state law requires a 60 day eviction notice for tenant who has paid on time and is in a month to month lease situation.  Some renters are getting evictions notices telling them they need to get out in less than that time.  Some renter are claiming that they have been asked to leave in 3 days.  If you are in this situation, call your local authorities and report the eviction.  Usually you will receive a revised eviction notice given you 60 days.   Then the real problems begin.   As more people are looking for replacment housing, the available rental market is feeling a spike in demand; rents are certainly to rise.

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Sometimes landlords and property managers can take a bite out of crime when they run criminal background checks on their prospective tenants.  In addition to running tenant credit reports for financial history, landlords are now running criminal records searches to make sure their tenants don’t have a history of violance or are currently out on an active warrant.  Not only can a tenant with a violent history open landlords to potential lawsuits from other victimized tenants, but tenants with active warrants have a habit of getting arrested and incarcerated, and not making their rent.   This can potentially lead to the costly and time consuming eviction process. 

Saving time and money with Tenant Screening
With a fast tenant screening program, you can run an instant credit report and a nationwide criminal database search and have the results returned instantly.  Further criminal research can require a county researcher, but the instant report is pretty effective in many states.

Chicago tenants who face eviction due to landlord foreclosure may receive some additional assistance from City Hall.  The plan is being put forth by the Chicao mayor Daley, which will provide up to three months of rent and moving expenses for tenants affected by the landlord foreclosure.  The new bill is also looking to expand the notice to 90 days notice for all tenants affecting before being evicted from foreclosed properties.  According to the Chicago Sun Times, some renters “get as little as five days’ notice.”

Keep them renting or abandon the building
This bill addresses a larger strategic issue for urban planners, whether to keep foreclosed buildings with renters inside to maintain the value of the property, or evict them and have an abandoned building on the block, open to vandalism and abuse.

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The Ludington Police Department and the Mason County Sheriff’s Office conducted a rental housing training program for local property owners, rental homes, mobile home parks and apartment communities.  One of the most important topics they covered was how proactive landlord behaviors such as tenant background checks can prevent alot of problems.

For example, participants learned one irresponsible or disruptive resident can easily distress an entire building, causing good renters not to renew their leases.

New screening methods, including criminal background and history checks for possible tenants, is something Larry Martz, owner of Heritage Hills mobile home park, says is one of the things he will be using.

Read the full article here:

Kudos for Ludington for promoting a responsible and safe environment for apartment dwellers to live.  It appears that more landlords are becoming aware of the need for tenant background checks, especially criminal records searches.  

 
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Channel 34 news in binghamton New YOrk has a great story about a super bad tenant that wil make your head shake and your wallet cringe.  There’s a stereotype in our culture about bad landlords but not one about problem tenants.  There could be after reading this.  According to the article, it’s common for tenants to trash apartments, and leave behind garbage once they have moved out.  But the landlord said that this super bad tenant:

It was feces all over the place. There was literally millions, not thousand, but millions of roaches. Where I had totally barfed because there’s so much stuff that was going on. Three days ago this sidewalk, from that pole to that tree, was lined with garbage – furniture saturated with urine and infested with roaches, and garbage as high as I am tall.” 

 The final price tag for the clean up was $10,000.  Apparently the tenant paid their rent on time and never called about any problems.  Maybe they should have.

Would a background check help? 
It’s worth wondering whether a tenant background check would have alerted the landlord to the potential problem with this tenant.  As stated in the article, the tenant paid their rent on time and didn’t cause a problem.  It’s possible this tenant would have decent credit and no criminal record.  This is why it’s worth it to check for possible previous evictions.  Evictions occur according to the local, state and federal laws applicable in the area, adn are usually along financial lines, but sometimes the tenant can be evicted for other reasons, such as trashing the apartment.  If this happened before, it good to check again. 

Another thing to consider is make sure someone is doing walkthrough on your building.  If you don’t have a full time maintenance personnel, make sure someone is aware of the problems in the building and communicate with your tenants from time to time to be aware of any problems.  The complaints about the smells would have been a first warning. 

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