Company paying for Tenant's rent

[Nina Sylvains]

Hello BP! I have a house for rent, and I've been contacted by a company who wants to rent it for a an employee. The tenant would be moving to area permanently (or for the rest of their employment with the company). They might also have other employees stay at the place while they transition.  

I have a few questions. Who do I credit check? I was thinking to rent directly to the company (have the company sign the lease) so they could have which ever employee they wanted at the time to live their without having to screen a new tenant every time they transition. The employer will send the check directly to me so it will never go through the tenant. 

Another question I have is what should some requirements be? For example for a regular tenant i have they must have a 650+ credit score, make 2x the rent etc. Should it be different if the company is signing the lease? Need help asap as they are wanting to make moves into the house soon. 

Thanks BP for your help! I look forward to your responses!

[Hattie Dizmond]

It's quite common for larger companies, with a major presence in a market to have flexible corporate housing available to employees who are on long-term, but not permanent assignments and/or for contractor/consultants who fill a specialty niche and are working on a project basis.

As far as what you require from the company, it depends on who the company is!  JP Morgan used to keep a couple of townhouses just outside of Downtown Dallas for this purpose.  People would be down from the north for 2 or 3 weeks, and it was more comfortable for them to be in a house or apartment.  They used corporate leases at apartment complexes for longer term situations, where the duration was more predictable.  Particularly before the advent of the long-term stay hotels, it was much cheaper for the companies.  If you're talking about a company like a JP Morgan, I wouldn't really require anything of them.  :-)

Any company who is ready to make this type of commitment  is likely to have a D&B score.  Pull their D&B report to see what kind of payer they are.  They should have some lines open with someone.

Personally, if it's a smaller company, I would simply increase the security deposit.  Also, particularly if it's a tech company and there is a chance they will be using the residence for H-1 visa status contractors, I would put a limit on the # of simultaneous occupants.  This is nothing against the occupants, but I've seen companies try to cram 10 people in a 2-BR apartment, just because they know those folks won't make a stink about it.