Thanks for asking David. I've not started the process itself but here's the template I'm constructing for the pre-screening questioner and as of now these are the questions I intend to be asking until something changes:
1. Who will live in the unit? Please list names, date of birth (to verify that one is over the age of 18), email and phone number.*
2. When would you like to move in?*
3. For how long would you like to live in the unit?*
4. What pets do you have?*
5. Do you or anyone in your household smoke or vape?*
6. How many evictions have been filed upon everyone in your household?*
7. Can you provide references from past landlords?*
8. If you can not provide references from past landlords, what's the reason?
9. Have you or anyone in your household ever broken a rental agreement/lease?*
10. What's the household's current living situation?*
11. Why are you moving?*
12. Can you provide a criminal record?*
13. Do everyone in your household have a job? If so, where and since when?*
14. Can you provide confirmation of employment if you are employed?*
15. Are there any other sources of income? If so, which ones?*
16. Which felonies have you and everyone in your household committed?*
17. Under which circumstances would you not be able to pay the rent?*
18. Why should we rent to you?*
19. Is there anything else we should know?
* are required questions.
These are the requirements I list before the potential tenant starts to answer the questioner:
- * Smoking (vaping included) not allowed.
* Pets not allowed.
* A criminal record is required and its important that it does not contain serious sentences.
* It's required that you've never been filed for evicted before.
* Recommendations from previous landlords is important, if applicable.
* A stable job/income required.
* Long term renting preferred.
* All applicants must be 18 years of age or older.
* Not recommended for more than one person since the unit is small.
I understand that the questioner may appear long, but it actually only takes a couple of minutes to answer and its purpose is to replace the phone-call and in the long term save my time and the applicant's time. What's your opinion on it?
It should be noted that the laws are pretty weird here in Iceland so we can't ask for salary questions and credit checks are only getting started by tech companies so we're limited to basic internet background checks and checking references.
Does this list seem sufficient for a pre-screen, an overkill or perfect? It sounds like this should weed out most of the bad apples. The idea is to take those who pass through this to a showing and then allow them to make an official application where they'd submit their criminal record and a list of past landlords and confirmation of employment. Calling HR to verify employment might be viable here but there's no way that we're allowed to dig deeper than that here.
Thanks again!
BTW I'm not discriminating due to age. This is simply not a family unit. It's for 1 person due to how small it is.