Screening new tenants? Learn about these important tenant screening questions you should be asking. Learn about asking for references, background and credit checks, criminal history, and eviction history with these tenant screening questions.
If you’re moving new tenants into one of your rental properties, tenant screening is a step you cannot skip. You can also ask questions before running a tenant screening report, which will provide you with valuable insight about your possible renters. While you should always run a tenant screening report before you sign any leases, tenant screening questions can also be extremely helpful.
Tenant screening questions are a valuable tool to learn about your potential future renter. These questions can help you learn about your potential new tenant early on, and can allow them to clarify some information before moving forward with a tenant screening report. Explore these tenant screening questions you should be asking, and learn about the importance and benefits of each question.
Keep in mind that not just anything you learn about a tenant can be a reason to deny their application. Many tenants fall into protected classes, meaning that you cannot deny them housing based on certain specific criteria. To keep your screening process fair, be sure to add these questions to your written tenant screening criteria so that all applicants are assessed with the same consistent process.
Learn more: The Fair Housing Act: Anti-Discrimination Laws for Landlords and Property Managers
Tenant Screening Questions About Move-In
Why are You Planning to Move?
While this question may seem innocuous, asking it can reveal a lot about your prospective tenant. Many tenants move for various reasons, and it is best not to press them for more information if it isn’t necessary. However, some tenants need to move for reasons related to their prior living situation, such as those who have been evicted or experienced other issues with their landlords.
Some tenants leave due to negative landlord circumstances that aren’t necessarily their fault. Not every housing situation works out, and sometimes a tenant chooses to leave due to conflict with their landlord. While a landlord cannot evict a tenant in retaliation, prior disputes may cause a tenant to choose to leave. Regardless, knowing why a tenant left their prior living situation can be helpful in understanding what they might be like as a tenant.
Can I Contact Your Employer or Previous Landlord?
A former landlord is typically the best source of information on what it would be like to have a specific tenant in your rental. Having worked with that tenant previously, the prior landlord will know the tenant better than most others.
From most landlords, you can learn about what you will likely experience with the tenant, including their communication styles, whether or not they pay rent on time, and other important information regarding their experience. This information can be extremely valuable to a landlord, as it outlines what to expect from a tenant. If you are concerned about a tenant, speaking to multiple prior landlords can also be helpful, as it will offer you multiple perspectives on their behavior as a renter.
As someone with more distance from the tenant’s living habits, but enough information to be helpful, employers are another great resource. They know what your would-be tenant is like as an employee, and can attest to their responsibility, timeliness, and other important information that you want as a landlord.
Learn more: Is Your Landlord Harassing You? | Property Manager Examples & How to Report
Who Will be Living at the Property?
This includes other adults, children, and pets. Be advised that you cannot decline a rental applicant based on having children, as the Fair Housing Act prohibits such discrimination. However, it is still helpful to have this information. It will help you understand what to expect from these tenants, especially if you have a property that has a low capacity. For pets, it may be a deciding factor in whether you rent to them, as not every property is pet-friendly.
Tenant Screening Questions About Background
Will You Agree to a Background and Credit Check?
Sometimes, just asking for their permission to conduct a background check is enough to learn about a tenant’s history. Some will agree to it readily, allowing you to proceed with your standard processes and learn about them through it. Others may agree, but disclose information you would find in it or explain something on their records. Others still may outright refuse to allow background or credit checks, which is a red flag that you should think about.
Learn more: The Ultimate Guide to Tenant Screening for Landlords
Have You Ever Been Evicted?
While eviction history will typically come up during a background check, asking ahead of time gives a prospective tenant an opportunity to disclose their history and explain it. Everyone’s life circumstances are different, and a tenant may have had a difficult history due to a variety of factors. Knowing about this history is important and provides useful information on a tenant’s background.
Learn more: Do I need a Tenant Screening Eviction History Report? – Video
Have You Ever Been Convicted of a Relevant Crime?
This tenant screening question requires careful wording, as specifying whether or not a prospective tenant has been convicted of a crime is important. You should not ask about arrests or other similar legal actions, only convictions. Relevant crimes to their ability to rent would include violent crimes, property damage, and convictions for creating or distributing illicit substances.
This is an important question to ask because it may not only protect you from property damage or liability, but also the community where you own a home. Information about a tenant’s criminal history will typically come up during the screening process, as background checks usually provide information about recent criminal convictions, but asking a tenant about their conviction history can provide them with an opportunity to honestly explain their circumstances to you.
Other Tenant Screening Questions to Ask
While these are some of the most important tenant screening questions to ask, there are many others that could be beneficial. These include asking questions about:
- Financial and occupational circumstances
- Intended move-in dates
- How long they intend to live at the property
- How long they lived at their previous address
- Smoking status
- Parking expectations
- Additional information they may want to disclose before a tenant screening is completed
While not an exhaustive list, these questions provide a starting point from which you can add on additional questions based on your property, your lease, and any other concerns you may have. It is important to be aware that not every detail of a tenant’s life and background is up for discussion, so ensure that you are asking questions that are relevant to their suitability as renters and allowed by fair housing laws.
Final Thoughts
While tenant screening questions are extremely important, do not forget to perform tenant screening through a tenant screening service. However, the information you get through speaking to a tenant or their references may provide you with an excellent starting point. Additionally, if you get information that would disqualify a tenant from renting from you, as per your lease, you may save yourself the time of further going through the process of tenant screening. Consider these questions or any others that might be relevant to your property next time you speak to a potential tenant.
