You may love your apartment or property which you no longer use and do not want to sell it because of many reasons. Giving it away for rent is one among the best ways to earn extra money within no time and very less effort. However, it is very important that you do a thorough check on your renters so that you don’t get into trouble because of them.
Once you are all set to give your renter the key to your property, you should be at peace and this is where the importance of checking backgrounds comes into play. Most of the landlords who get into trouble because of their renters are those who respect the dignity and honesty of their renters and do not bother to do proper background checks. These people do realize the importance of checking backgrounds only after having gone through a bad experience.
Here are five painful situations your renter can put you in; if you have not done proper screening while you chose your renter or you haven’t been alert when things started smelling fishy.
- Not paying rent on time
Not paying the rent properly on time can be very painful since you are not providing them a free service. If you aren’t in a position to live without this income, it is going to hit your daily expenses hard.
Why do you need to adjust and suffer because your tenants fail to pay you on time? No matter what the reason is. May be it’s okay to give them a few days extra considering genuine reasons; but always letting them pay whenever they want will surely ruin your peace of mind.
- Damaging property
You didn’t sell off your property to your renters and this is exactly why they wouldn’t care but you need to make sure none of your permanent assets like the furniture, fans, lights, windows, and other things are not damaged. Warn them that you will cut the money from their caution deposit.
- Criminal background and illegal activities
If you fail to do a proper background check, your renter’s hidden criminal records may go unnoticed by you and you will only get to know them when it’s too late. Your name as well as your property’s name will surely get tarnished if something wrong happens in such cases.
- Unhealthy social behavior
Parties with loud music on till midnight and unhealthy behavior causing a nuisance to the neighbors will spoil your peace of mind and you are at the risk of losing the respect the neighbors as well.
- Bringing in new people to stay
Your renters can bring their family, friends or partner about whom you have no clue about and this will increase your threat. In such cases you have to make sure you do a screen test of the new people and also increase the rent accordingly.