How to Check Rental History 101: Big Landlord & Tenant Tips
In terms of how to check rental history reports, we’ve gathered some of the most popular sources for uncovering this information. And that’s not all—we’ve also compiled valuable tips landlords and tenants alike can use to make the rental history report checkup process go correctly. Read below for more details.
Main Takeaways
- You can find a free rental history report by reaching out to Experian RentBureau. Also, credit reports can include rental histories if your landlord provides them with that information.
- The Fair Credit Reporting Act states that tenants have the legal right to get one free rental history report about themselves each year. As for landlords, they will often have to pay to get another person’s file.
- As an alternative, you can simply ask the tenant’s previous landlords or property managers directly for the relevant information.
Table of Contents
- What is a Rental History Report?
- How to Check Rental History Reports
- Why a Good Report Can Benefit Tenants
- Why Landlords Should Perform Rental History Checks
- Tips for Tenants: How to Get the Report Results Possible
- Advice for Landlords: How to Check a Rental History Thoroughly
- Common Report-Related Problems and How to Deal with Them
What Is a Rental History Report?
A rental history report is a report of how well someone has met their responsibilities as a renter in the past. It shows whether they paid the rent dependably and when due, whether they stayed leased in each rental consistently long enough, whether they had any lease-breaking issues and more glimpses of what it might be like to have the person as a tenant.
Because of this, rental history reports are critical for each Atlanta property manager and landlord to examine.
A rental history report lays out a person’s past actions as a renter. More specifically, it presents:
- Name, address, and start and end dates of each property a tenant has lived in
- How long the tenants have stayed in each property, and for how much rent
- Payment track record, including late, invalid, or unpaid payments
- Times the tenant renewed and ended their lease
- The terms and conditions of each lease they’ve signed
- Any past problems, such as lease term violations, property damage, evictions, unruly behavior, breaking leases before term end without legal reasons for doing so, etc.
- Previous landlords’ or property managers’ contact information
- References from past landlords and property managers.
How to Check Rental History Reports
You can find a free rental history report by reaching out to Experian RentBureau. Also, credit reports can include rental histories if your landlord provides them with that information.
In particular, the Fair Credit Reporting Act states that tenants have the legal right to get one free rental history report about themselves each year. For landlords, they will often have to pay to get another person’s file.
As an alternative, you can simply ask the tenant’s landlords or property managers directly for the relevant information.
Why a Good Report Can Benefit Tenants
Building a good rental history is well worth the trouble because it makes you stand out.
You’d be surprised how many tenants can be unreliable, sporting spotty rental histories. When you demonstrate that you’re trustworthy, you reassure landlords that their investment is in good hands.
This peace of mind can go a long way towards making you beat the competition. For example, if you have consistently paid the rent in past rentals, your potential landlord can feel secure that you will provide a steady source of income each month.
Why Landlords Should Perform Rental History Checks
Rental history checks protect your investment and reduce risk. They give you a picture of what each tenant has been like and may keep being like when living on a rental property.
Such information can save you from dealing with bad tenants who trash your property, fail to pay the rent, drive away other tenants, or endanger your business in any way.
Tips for Tenants: How to Get the Best Report Results Possible
Look below for some ways you can make your rental history report the very best it can be.
Ask Past Landlords or Property Managers for Recommendation Letters
It’s nice enough for landlords to call past ones and get good feedback during the rental history process. However, nothing quite beats a formal, thoughtful recommendation letter.
After all, calls can be sudden spur-of-the-moment. So, your landlord may not have a lot of time to process what they want to convey properly. But with an old-fashioned letter, your past landlords have more time to think you through. Because of this, they can carve out a more thorough recommendation, one that expresses each quality they liked about you as a renter.
Gather and Verify Your Documents
If you’re compiling your rental history report instead of an agency, there are documents you should have handy. You must gather your rental information, such as past rental agreements, terms, and conditions, and other conduct-related policies and notices. Also, verify it for its currentness and accuracy.
Also, you should provide proof of income and employment, such as pay stubs (although you can provide proof without pay stubs, too). This will show that you have the steady source of funds necessary to pay rent consistently.
Pay Off Any Outstanding Rental Debt
When you pay back your past debt, it reflects well on you. It shows that you have a sense of accountability, that you know you’ve made mistakes and are addressing them directly. Best of all, it helps clean your report.
Advice for Landlords: How to Check a Rental History Thoroughly
Let’s break down how to check a rental history. Here, you’ll find the essential features you should include in a rental history report:
Steady Income
You should make sure that your tenant has a stable and reliable income stream to cover the rent and other financial commitments. By doing this, you can ensure they will pay the rent on time, each time.
The prospective tenant’s employment status, income stability, and debt-to-income ratio all can provide insight into how well they can meet their financial obligations and rent dues.
Clear Creditworthiness
It’s critical to ask for the potential tenant’s credit report. When you assess your applicant’s creditworthiness, you garner valuable information about their financial history and management skills. In that vein, their credit report can uncover their payment history, outstanding debts, and credit score. In the end, a good credit history shows that the tenant is financially put together, which indicates that they’ll pay rent by the due date.
No Sordid Eviction History
Evictions can be a huge red flag for prospective tenants. On that note, it goes without saying that you should check for this.
To be clear, some people get evicted because they fall upon hard times. They may face sudden job losses or other life obstacles that can happen to anyone. So, you should always give tenants the benefit of the doubt before passing on them.
However, if your tenant has a storied history of evictions, it may be a sign of a deeper-rooted issue. These patterns can imply potential problems with property damage, disputes with previous landlords, or missing the rent for non-urgent reasons.
All in all, if you see an eviction on a rental history report, that’s a reason to pause. It’s a sign you need to scrutinize your tenant’s background much more deeply before moving forward.
Good Landlord and Personal References
Another must for your rental history report is references. The applicant’s references offer significant insights about their rental history beyond the concrete facts. Here, you can get a fellow landlord’s take on their lived experience in having the tenant. You can hear about what it’s like to deal with the tenant day by day, issue by issue.
Also, personal references can give you a better idea of the applicant’s character, temperament, and management skills.
No Lease Violations
Needless to say, if the person has a history of neglecting property maintenance, trashing their property, being disruptive, or other basic lease violations, that’s a sign they’re not a fit for your property. That said, you should steer clear of tenants who fit this description.
Few Frequent Move-Outs
If the rental history report shows that your tenant moves from place to place frequently, that’s a bad sign. It means they may have limited potential to be a long-term tenant. In turn, that might mean you’ll be doing this tenant screening process yet again soon. So, you should ideally seek tenants who stay in their leases for a long time.
Common Report-Related Problems and How to Deal with Them
We’ve compiled solutions to common landlord and tenant rental history-related issues below. Let’s get into it:
For Landlords
Here are answers to some of the most common quandaries landlords face in the rental history report process.
What You Should Do If Your Potential Tenant Has No Rental History
It may sound daunting to rent to someone who doesn’t have a prior rental history. However, everyone has to start somewhere, like college students. All it simply takes is some standard vetting and a few other key strategies to secure your decision. To accomplish this, you can:
- Require a Co-Signer- You can require a co-signer, also known as a guarantor. To define a co-signer, they’re a financially stable person, like a parent or guardian, who commits to paying the rent if the tenant cannot. With this, you can have a backup source of income in case new renters have some growing pains in developing financial management skills.
- Request References- Although these tenants don’t have a rental history, they probably do have personal or professional references. These can demonstrate their character and reliability. As such, it’s a good idea to ask for references that prove these qualities. Such references could include employers, professors, or other professionals who will provide a clear idea of the tenant’s ability to fulfill their responsibilities.
- Ask for Proof of Employment: If you confirm your prospective tenant’s employment status and monthly income, it can show if they have the financial stability needed to consistently pay the rent. To do this, you can ask for pay stubs, employee contact info, and letters that verify their employment. On the other hand, if they’ve had an inconsistent employment history, that may indicate they will struggle to pay the rent.
How to Narrow Down Tenants When You Have Too Many Good Applicants to Choose From
If multiple tenants seem like they would be a good pick, there are a few solutions to narrow down your decision. While we have a more in-depth article dedicated to solving this problem, we’ll quickly share some of the basic strategies:
- Have a first-come, first-served approach
- Sort based on application strength
- Choose the overall better tenant over the tenant who can move in the fastest
For Tenants
Now, here are some solutions to some of the challenges tenants might face in the rental report process.
How You Can Handle Errors or Omissions in Your Report
If you spot any errors in your report, you can dispute it with your potential landlord’s report source. Or, if the problem is related to your finances, you may be able to take it up with credit reporting bureaus. These processes could take a few weeks.
If the error is fixed, great! If not, many companies allow you to add written notes to share your side of the story. Either way, you might want to show proof that these issues are errors to your potential landlord, so they know it’s legitimate.
On the contrary, you may have some beneficial information to contribute to your rental report. In this case, you could ask your previous landlords to report these details to the relevant agency.
What To Do If You Have a Less-Than Ideal Rental History
It also may help you to make notes explaining any issues you faced in past tenancies or your financial history.
For example, if you were evicted, you could explain the challenges you faced that led to this event. Then, you could display how you have improved the problems that led to your eviction since then. With this, you show that you have taken actionable steps to improve yourself as a tenant.
As another common scenario, if you struggled to pay the rent in the past, you could explain why you faced this hardship. In turn, you could share how your financial situation has changed since then, with receipts.
Make Tenant Screening Easier with BMG Atlanta
Landlords and tenants should prioritize rental histories that signal an ability to consistently follow lease terms and pay the rent. When potential tenants display their commitment to being reliable, they start their new tenancy off on the right foot.
Meanwhile, if you want to make sure both landlords and tenants have a good rental experience, we can help. As a full-service property management company, we work on the landlord’s behalf to make sure tenants are satisfied.
We handle tenant communications, maintenance, rent collection, registration, and other matters. Even better, we can undergo tenant screening so that you have a good tenant-landlord match. This way, tenants can have their rental needs met expeditiously and landlords don’t have to lift a finger. Contact us today to get the best of both worlds.
