Rental Background Check Questions- What Tenants Should Answer

Rental background check questions are the need of the hour when it comes to letting out a property on lease. There are several ways in which you can conduct a background screening for tenants. Landlords can do it by themselves or hire professional services of an investigation company. The only problem faced by landlords in running a background check is that they are confused as to what questions should be included in the screening process for the prospective tenants. Other than this, a land owner might not be conversant with all the existing laws for tenant background check, unlike a reference check company.

 

The rental application check starts with the rental back ground check queries being asked to the potential renter. They are in the form of a questionnaire that also includes a consent form for conducting a background check on him. Some of the very important questions that a rental screening should consist of are:

1. Why are you and your family interested in moving to a new house?
2. How many family members do you have?
3. If you have kids, what are their ages and number?
4. Is there any estranged family member? If yes, can you give their contact details and relation with you?
5. If you have pets, how many do you own and of what kind?
6. Does anybody in your family smoke?
7. A renters' background check will also ask about the basic personal details of the tenancy

candidate as follows:

1. Complete name of the tenancy applicant and date of birth.
2. Social security number.
3. Current address and past ten years' addresses.
4. If you lived on rent before, kindly provide the landlords' contact information.
5. Current job and salary.
6. Nature of work/Occupation.
7. Past employment details for 3 years.
8. Education qualifications.
9. Queries about misdemeanor or any existing felony record of the applicant.
10. Driver's license number and State where issued.
11. Details of vehicles owned and their license plate numbers.

A rental history check and a rental reference check will be helpful to find out the creditworthiness of the potential tenant.

 

Always remember that these rental background check questions have to be answered by all the co-renters on a separate form as well, in case they are not members of the same family. Once the landlord has these questions answered by the applicants, he can take a decision regarding tenancy right away!