What are some of the relevant questions to ask a previous landlord? I’m concerned that he/she won’t want to spend a lot of time talking.
A landlord calling on a landlord reference check must verify the identity of the reference, the rental address, and confirm the full name of the applicant to the full name of the former tenant. Verification of applicant identity is critical if the applicant has a common surname or generational suffix. A landlord must vet the same person who is now his applicant.
To protect against claims of discriminatory treatment, all applicants should be screened for landlord references using a prepared script of questions and answers should be written down as received.
A sample reference verification script might include the following questions:
- When did the tenant’s lease begin and end?
- What was the amount of monthly rent?
- Did the tenant pay the rent on time?
- If the tenant paid late, was a legal notice given to demand the rent?
- Did the tenant have roommates that contributed to the monthly rent?
- Did the tenant take good care of the property?
- Was the tenant considerate of his neighbors?
- Were any warnings or legal notices served because of lease violations?
- Was required notice given per the lease agreement?
- What reason did the tenant give for move-out?
- Was the full security deposit refunded?
- Is there any information that should be disclosed regarding this tenant?
- Would you rent to this tenant again? Why?
Contacting previous landlords to verify past rental history is an important screening tool for risk assessment. It could provide some insight toward the applicant’s future rental behaviors. A landlord must however evaluate an applicant’s qualifications using a variety of tenant screenings. By using multiple types of screenings, if the tenant has been a problem tenant in the past there will likely be red flags that show up in other screenings.
If there are unsatisfactory references from previous landlords, and those landlords would not rent to this applicant again, a landlord should consider these reports to be an indication of business risk and reject the applicant. If there was unpaid rent, property damage, nuisance complaints, or lease violations at the applicant’s previous housing address, there is a good probability that similar problems could occur in the future.