All Forum Posts by: Laura Hamilton

 Great, thanks so much Dana!!!

We're accepting pets (cats & dogs under 40 lbs), their husky is 35-40 lbs. Condo association has 40 lbs limit. Actually condo association has for some reason husky as not allowed, but when I called the condo association manager she allowed the husky.

Few interesting situations with prospective tenants:

We have a nice lady who is coming to see our rental property. However she is Canadian citizen and I wonder how would we do credit check for her? She is in a managerial position in her employment (started a month ago), and although I'd prefer longer current employment history, having a managerial level job gives me a more reliable feeling about her. Saw her previous work history (Canada based work history) on her linkedin page and it looked impressive. 

We also have a active military couple (husband in military, wife works somewhere else) who sound good too. I understand that with active military we have to accept that they are allowed to break a lease in case they get deployed. Q: As they have a husky dog, which means in the end of the lease there might be (hopefully not of course) some repairs to be done, is there any specific rules with active military regarding security deposits? 

Thirdly we have a couple whose still considering our place as we asked a holding fee/ deposit (would get rolled as part of their security deposit once they move in) which I guess made them unsure. But we would have needed to wait 3 weeks for the lease to start, so honestly speaking I'm glad we asked for a holding fee, whatever they decide to do. 

Any advice for the Canadian credit check or security deposit rules for active military?

Thanks,

Laura

Yes, will do the official paper work for it. Decided to ask for 300 $ holding fee, which will become part of the security deposit once the lease is signed in 3 weeks. And if they decide to cancel, we'll keep the 300 $. I think 300 $ is high enough to keep the holding serious. 

Thanks so much for all the replies!

I was thinking of asking them for the "holding fee" now and then once they move in in 3 weeks, that holding fee can be changed to be part of the security deposit. But if they suddenly would cancel, we would keep the holding fee.  The rent is 1530 $ so thinking the holding fee could be something around 300 $. 

We might though forget the "holding fee" and go with John's suggestion of signing the lease now, ask them to deposit the security deposit and then in 3 weeks pay the rent. My question is though that if we do this route, and once they've signed the 1 year lease, can they still somehow legally cancel before moving in? 

My husband and I found very nice prospective tenants who have both great credits and good employments. Problem is prospective tenants are still under their current lease for a month and now are asking if we could start the lease one week before their current lease ends..but not earlier than that. So we would need to wait 3 weeks before getting rent from the unit.

They are very nice and ready for a 1-year lease. If we agree, what is the habit, should we take a holding fee etc?

Thanks,

Laura

@ Sarnen Steinbarth: 

Thank you! As the application is already filled, including the SSN, bank information etc, we're going to just cover those details on the email. But for future reference, will definitely modify our application so that it's more convenient when verifying data.

Thank you for the advice Tom! Much appreciated!

Hi,

My husband and I are about to rent out our first investment property and need some advice, please.

Currently we're checking out our prospective tenant's information, including previous landlords and employers. To receive information from the previous landlords we have the tenant's authorization on the rental application to do that, but I wonder if it's normal practice to scan the papers and email the information to the previous landlords (so they can see the application and tenant's authorization to do that)? Why I'm asking this is because the application obviously includes their SSN and other private information and personally I always try to minimize sharing this kind of information about myself in an email. 

Yet, I wouldn't want to drive around showing the paper personally to the previous landlords either. And I don't have a fax, so can't fax it.

Thank you in advance for the advice!

Laura