What to Look for in a Tenant Credit Check



Posted: Wednesday, March 24, 2010

by CLTaylor
Creative Communications

One huge hassle that a landlord faces is ensuring that their tenants have a good credit history and will be able to pay the rent on time. You need to make sure as a landlord that you conduct a thorough tenant credit check to make sure they will be good tenants. This article will provide you with what to look for in a tenant's credit check.

The first thing to look for in your tenant's credit check is their previous address history. This will show you the frequency at which they move. If they have lived in multiple places in a short period of time they have probably been evicted and you might want to run an eviction check (surf rate-a-renter) before you take them on as tenants. Also, you can contact the landlord at their previous address to find how out how good of tenants they were.

A big thing you need to look for is any County Court Judgments (CCJs), satisfied or unsatisfied. If there are any CCJs on your potential tenant's credit score, it means the tenant has either owed creditor money or still owes creditor money and was taken to court to settle the payment.

CCJs stay on a person's credit score for 6 years. There are two types of CCJs, satisfied or unsatisfied. If a CCJ has been satisfied, it means the person no longer owes that creditor money. If a CCJ is unsatisfied it means that person still owes creditor money. Tenants with CCJs are a risk and you should never rent to a tenant with unsatisfied CCJs if you don't want hassles in the future.

The last things to look for in a tenant's credit check are bankruptcies, tax liens, and judgments. If a potential tenant has been through a bankruptcy, it is best to avoid renting to them as there is no guarantee that they will be reliable tenants for pay their rent consistently and on time.

Tax liens are another thing that if present you might avoid having them as tenants. Tax liens are a result of a person being delinquent on taxes owed for a property or a failure to pay income or other taxes, neither of which are good.

Finally, you need to look into judgments that have been filed against the potential tenant. Judgments are shown on a credit report when a tenant has not paid a landlord rent for an extended period of time and moved out.

Receiving a credit check for a tenant will help you to learn about the financial past of the potential tenant - but you have to know what to look for. This tenant credit check article should have given you the basics of what to look for in a tenant's credit check.

To learn exactly how do tenant screening, visit rate-a-renter.com

Cathy Taylor is a marketing consultant and freelance writer. She can be reached at creativecommunications@cox.net

Cathy Taylor is a marketing consultant and freelance writer and can be reached at creativecommunications@cox.net or visit Women Entrepreneurs Journey and click here to join BraveHeart Women

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