Finding the Ideal Tenant for your Property

The most important step for a successful rental experience is choosing the right tenants. You can avoid a lot of headaches and wasted money by getting this step right so it should never be rushed!

Below are a few steps to help you sift through potential candidates and choose someone suitable to look after your home.

1. Pre-tenancy application form

First and foremost, you should ask each potential tenant fill out an online application form. This will quickly get you most of the details you need in order to make a decision of who to rent to. By getting them to fill out this form, you will quickly confirm their ID, see their job, their renting history, and collect references that you can later contact.

2. Verify income

To verify their income you could ask for proof in the form of payslips or if they’ve left their employer as a reference you could confirm it with them. It’s recommended to rent to someone who’s income is at least 3 times the rental amount to avoid any payment issues.

3. Check references

This step is likely to tell you the most about your tenants so you should make sure you have the right questions to ask references. Some important things to know are:

- Did the tenant let them know if maintenance of repairs were needed?

- Did they communicate quickly and efficiently?

- Did they keep the place reasonable clean?

- Were they ever overdue with rent?

Speaking to more than one referee is best in case you feel one isn’t being completely honest.

4. Credit check

You can request permission on the pre-tenancy agreement to run a credit check for a potential tenant. If you have permission then you can go through an agency who will give you a credit report. This report will give you information about their credit rating, payment defaults, bankruptcies and other information.

5. Check LinkedIn

An extra tip to learn more about your potential tenant is to quickly check their social media. LinkedIn is a good option to confirm their employment history. One question to keep in mind is how often they might switch between jobs or locations.

6. Ask if they’ve been to the tenancy tribunal before

You may like to know if potential tenants have needed to go to the Tenancy Tribunal before. You could ask whether they or their landlord had made the complaint and what it was about.

7. Do not discriminate

When selecting a tenant, it's important to keep in mind that it is illegal to refuse to rent to someone due to:

- Gender

- Religion

- Race

- Nationality

- Physical or mental disability

- Age

- Political opinion

- Employment status

- Marital status

- Sexual orientation

If you take your time and go through each of the above steps then you are likely to find a tenant who will treat your property as if it's their own.