Rental application question

[Sharad M.]

Hello all,

I have couple of tenants coming over to look at one of my rentals on Saturday and I am getting application and lease ready. I was going through the rental application and it asks for copies of 2 previous tax returns or 2 years of W2. And then for the bank account information, the application I have asks for bank account and credit card account numbers. Also the application asks for loan account numbers.

The rental application you guys use asks for all this information? I am just thinking along the lines that I wouldn't feel comfortable giving my bank account numbers, CC accounts numbers and loan numbers to anyone, so why would anyone else? Can you guys please help? Do you ask for W2, tax returns and all the account numbers from each applicant? And how do applicants usually react to those requests? May be a silly question since I am a newbie.

[Account Closed]

I can't even imagine an applicant giving all that information in this day and age of identity theft.

The biggest question, though, is "What are you going to do with that information?"

If you have bank account numbers, the banks won't give you any information about the accounts. So why do you need their account numbers?

What are you going to do with their credit card number? If you charge anything to it, you might very well end up in jail. Why do you need that number? The credit report will tell you if they pay their credit card, and even if they have a credit card.

Any body can fill out a tax form any way they want to. Unless you are going to get a copy of the tax returns directly from the IRS, a tax return means nothing.

2 years of W-2's? I only care that they have income right now and their boss thinks they are reliable.

There is no reason to have any question on the application that doesn't give you information that you will be using to do your screening. Trim your application down until it only provides information that will help you choose a tenant.