Tenant screening a corporation or business

[Bradley Hager]

My question is what is the proper way to screen/credit check a business who will be paying for a residential lease?  

I have a potential renter for a single family property where the company they work for will be paying for their rent.  In West Texas, this is very common because many of the workforce travel from Houston or Dallas on a regular basis and renting a house is cheaper than staying in hotel rooms.  We have this same situation in another rental, however, we had a service do all the screening and listing of the property and they did the background checks.  We are attempting to do it ourselves this time.

I've been told to verify credit by contacting at least 3 of their creditors and seeing their payment history.  Also if they have lines of credit with a bank, get info on how much and their payment history.  Is there anything else to check?  Are there any specific forms/applications for them to fill out to take to their creditors so they provide the information freely?  Am I able to credit check/background check each tenant that will be living there even if they are not the ones paying the lease?

In the end, how do I do this the right way? 

[Nathan Gesner]

It's not possible to screen a business the way you would an individual. My policy is to screen very adult that resides in the rental. I don't care who pays the bills.

You can run a background check with a variety of different services. Search Google for "Tenant background check" and you'll find plenty of options. Check a few of the top ones out and give them a shot. Most of them let you sign up for free as the Landlord. Tenant goes to the website and fills out the application, you get the screening results. It's all stored on their secure server so you don't have to worry about protecting private information in your home.