Selecting and implementing the perfect lease agreement.

Posted: Aug 03, 2016
By: NatEvict
Comments: 0

Selecting and implementing the perfect lease agreement

When you think of rental forms, the first thing that probably pops into your mind is a lease. Often, landlords place the emphasis on the that form, because that’s the one that forms the framework of the landlord tenant relationship.

Surprisingly, it’s more likely to be their rental application that trips them up. It would be a mistake to use vigilance in selecting and implementing the perfect lease agreement, only to neglect the rental application.

Here are 5 reasons why having a rock-solid rental application helps landlords:

1. A rental application that asks the right questions is the only way to discover that a rental applicant is a bad risk, before it’s too late. Without the information obtained in this crucial landlord form, it will be more difficult to evaluate the tenant prospect. You could be setting yourself up for a loss by renting to a tenant with a bad history. Problem tenants tend to repeat the pattern. You don’t want to become one in a long line of landlord victims.

2. Tenants who complete this rental form consent to a background check, so you can access state-of-the art screening tools. Tenants acknowledge that you will be contacting their references and looking into financial habits. Otherwise, privacy laws would interfere with the screening process.

3. The rental application requires the applicant to sign and swear that the information they are providing on the form is true and complete. Not only will this provision encourage tenants to be honest, but it’s possible to use this statement in an eviction if you find that the tenant misrepresented facts when they completed the application.

4. The contact information needed to manage the property day-to-day ” and in case of an emergency ” is in the rental application. Hopefully you will never need to contact a tenant’s family in case of emergency, but having the information handy makes the task much easier. With the catastrophic storms that have ravaged the country in recent years, it’s become even more clear why landlords must be able to reach tenants quickly.

5. The tenant history found in the rental application is necessary for a collection company to locate a tenant who skips out without paying rent or after causing damage to the property. Often, personal contacts, banking information, and driver’s license information will remain the same after the tenant moves on. That information is much harder to obtain using a private detective or collection service.