@Racheal StoykHave the "friend" complete an application an screen them the same as you would any other candidate.Even if the present tenant is capable of carrying all the obligations on her own, once the "friend" is on the lease s/he will be more difficult to get out of the property.Our policy requires all occupants of the age of majority to be on the lease and we do not sign anyone to a lease until we have screened them.

You should be meeting in person with all qualified applicants as part of your regular screening process.

Maybe they don't screen well enough?

There are a ton of past forum posts on this topic.The plus is that you have another partner to get the tenant to comply, they have an incentive to not be kicked out of the program, and at least part of the rent is stable.The negative is that you have to endure outsider inspections and you have a bigger chance to have a tenant who doesn't know how to care for a property.You absolutely still need to do great tenant screening.

People talk about screening your tenants, but in my case I should screen my landlord.... the place was gorgeous, they were friendly, nice, and funny even.... and with the questions they asked, I thought they were just....screening me, so I just answered and prove to them I'm a trust worthy person.... little did I know, that was the sign for me to not sign the contract because they're so uptight. 

If they dont pass our criteria then we dont rent to them.Thats not outside of anything thats legal and is a very fair way to screen all of your tenants.

Residential their going to want stool samples and 4pints of blood and maybe a kidney.Ill save you the trouble of wasting your time.

Sometimes the background data is delivered to Cozy (and other screening companies) automatically, and other times, a real person has to search through physical file cabinets to find and report on the results.

Many of the reasons why landlords in our area are irresponsible for renting to anyone on government assistance.As like Bjorn I have no problem eliminating all welfare applicants through my normal screening standards.

Time to put some type of screen/grate on it.