Does each person on lease pay and get background & Credit checks?

Question

I hadn't thought of this until asked tonight. Should I require each person that would be signing the lease agreement, to submit for and pay for a background and credit check? I'm assuming so. However. That means, I'm essentially charging $70 total for a two person rental instead of the typical $35 or so. But that's the only way to ensure I know who I'm renting to fully to protect myself. I'm going thru Zillow SmartMove for the checks.

What is the industry standard for this? I'm assuming it's a frequent thing. I want to be fair, but be sure I'm smart and safe as can be.

Thanks for any input.

Brian

Nicole Clemens · Answer

Hi Brian. I recently ran into an issue where the applicants were offended by the $35/person fee. Mainly because they were all couples which is $70 and because there were multiple people applying for the property. They werent very happy about spending $70 for a 'chance' to get the place. I ended up compromising with said couple. I told them that if they pay for the credit check up front and if everything checks out, I will reimburse them (subtract it from their rent). This was only after the other couples told me that they werent interested and the remaining couple was the only option at the time.

Michael Noto · Answer

For our own rentals and for rentals we fill for our clients here in Connecticut we require the following when someone decides to apply:Any person 18 or older who will be living in the apartment fills out an applicationAny income claimed on the application, must be backed by a pay stub or employment letterCollect state IDs or drivers licenses for any applicant$25 fee per applicantWe then run a check on them which includes a national credit, criminal, eviction check through iCreditvision. We find their system very easy to use and the persons report comes on an easy to read PDF.

Craig Bellot · Answer

We only get background and credit checks on the final candidate that makes the pick.We do an initial questionnaire which asks the tenant their score, and do the free eviction / criminal case searches from the county court website. If the tenant passes these we will proceed with the nationwide credit / background check from tenacheck.com

Aquila Oliveira · Answer

@Brian Christoff take it from experience. you would want to screen everyone that would be living in the house. protect yourself first!I had someone come in that was not properly screened and it turned into one of the worst tenants in the history of tenants.All the best.

Thomas S. · Answer

I would never allow a tenant to submit their own back ground a credit check. It is far to easy for a tenant to falsify a report. Never trust strangers, if you are going to screen do it yourself or don't bother wasting your time screening at all.

Deanna McCormick · Answer

@Nicole Clemens Yes to apply the application fees to the rent for 1st month is smart and many do that. it's more your rewarding them for completing application and choosing your rental and giving credit toward their account that shows a win win, the tenant already starts out on a good foot.

Rob Winter · Answer

Newbie here. Some really good information in this thread. I like @Mark Avery's method of putting the onus on the prospective tenant to submit their own background and credit checks. It sounds like that would weed out the less serious or desirable candidates if they're hesitant.

Mark Avery · Answer

Hi @Brian Christoff, Great Question: Our application process is very similar to @Michael Noto except that we do not collect a fee. Instead the tenant is required to submit a credit and background check though www.tenantverify.net (usually runs about $25/person). It's a very helpful system that allows them to pay with a credit or debit card, sends the report to our email only via secure PDF (the don't see a copy, just verification that it's been sent). It saves us the work on the computer running each applicants info and a side benefit is seeing if the applicant if technologically challenged or not. And like @Gail Kaitschuck implied about the $15, if the applicant complains about taking the step to pay for their own reports, we question whether they're going to be the right fit for our property. Cheers, Mark

Deanna McCormick · Answer

Yes each applicant pays application fee. we charged 35.00 each person we ran. Over 18 years old. all adults listed on lease, if the had a minor child the child is listed with Minor after the name. Each person is considered a occupant no matter how old they are so for occupancy criteria all people were listed on lease. As long as income was good on at least 1 of the applicants to cover the rent we didn't need every applicant to have 600 credit score.. one spouse may be higher, or if kid was over 18 and still in school didn't need credit,, but all were criminal and eviction checked.No refunds on application fees and we usually required money orders, sometimes we'd take cash for applications fees just depended on the situation, they'd stop payments on checks if not approved.

Gail K. · Answer

I tell folks every person over the age of 18 who will be residing on the property will need to be screened. It's $15 per person for us.Sometimes I'll have someone ask me "If I don't pass do I get my money back?" Right then and there I know they've screened themselves out of my properties. If they're worried about $15 they're not likely to be making an income that's at least three times my rent.Gail