Screening questions for previous landlords

[Karl Huth]

Tenant screening is one of the most important parts of being a landlord and I think talking to the potential tenants previous landlord is key to accepting vs not accepting. What questions do you and can you ask the applicants previous landlord? Not sure if it changes state by state but I am specifically asking about Wisconsin. Thanks for the help.

[Kaycee Miller]

You are smart to require landlord references as part of your tenant screening process. The best way to receive an honest landlord reference about an applicant is to ask questions about their previous tenant’s renting behavior (not about their personality). Did the tenant have a history of late payments? Did the tenant terminate their lease early? How much of the security deposit was refunded? Late payments, disrespecting lease terms and forgoing the entire security deposit are big red flags for poor tenancy.

Rejecting an applicant because they have a history of late payments that were verified by a previous landlord is legal. Be careful if you reject an applicant based on personality because his old landlord didn't like him, you could risk running into discrimination claims - whether it was intentional or not, you would still be in trouble.

Here is a link to an article about how to create legal and objective screening criteria, including using landlord references for verification. https://www.rentecdirect.com/blog/2015/10/how-to-c...

Good Luck!