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    Renting to a tenant without pre-screening them is a recipe for disaster

    Renting to a tenant without pre-screening them is a recipe for disaster

    Image by Heather Cuthill

    There's been a lot of media coverage over the past couple of years about the so-called "freemen on the land" who move into an unsuspecting landlord's rental unit and proceed to claim it as their own - changing locks, putting liens on the property, and declaring the place an embassy of some bogus nation of their own concoction. In a recent case here in Calgary, the property was completely trashed by the occupants before the landlord was able to get it back.

    Renting to loony tunes such as these "freemen" is not the only risk you as a landlord take when you put your rental property on the market. You could find the police on your doorstep one morning informing you that the nice young couple you rented your duplex to were actually a couple of drug dealers who turned the place into a grow op. Now the place is uninhabitable and you're on the hook for thousands of dollars in repairs.

    "OMG! How can I make sure I don't end up with bad tenants?"

    Okay, don't panic. You CAN reduce your risk of renting the property you've invested so much in to a criminal, deadbeat, or complete whack job. Just follow these simple rules to help you separate the wheat from the chaff.

    1. Have every prospective tenant fill out a Rental Application form.

    This is the first step in screening your tenants. Ask for references and for the names and contact information of previous landlords. Get the names and phone numbers of their employers for the past 5 years. Then follow up with all of them. You're about to hand the key to your property over to total strangers. It makes sense to find out that (a) they are who they say they are, (b) they're employed and are likely to stay that way, and (c) they can actually afford to pay the rent.

    2. Do a background check.

    Does this person have a criminal record? Have they been evicted from other rental properties? If the answer to either of these questions turns out to be "yes", they're not your ideal tenant. Since no one is likely to volunteer that information, doing a background check for criminal history is essential. And do a search on local landlord-tenant websites, Facebook, Google, and Twitter to look for any comments or discussions regarding this person. If another landlord has been shafted, they're very likely to have posted something online about the situation.

    3. Don't hand over keys until the security deposit check has cleared.

    If the deposit check bounces, that's a REALLY BAD SIGN. Make it a condition of the lease / tenancy that the deposit must be paid (meaning "cleared") before possession is handed over.

    4. Always, always, always use a written lease or tenancy agreement, and get it signed before the tenant takes possession.

    A tenancy is a legal contract between two parties, and as such, it should be in writing. Even if the law in your area doesn't require a written lease or rental contract, it's so much easier to enforce if the tenant has put his/her signature on something. As they say, a verbal contract ain't worth the paper it's printed on.

    Image © HM Cuthill
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