Photo by cottonbro from Pexels
and I talk to their previous landlord . I want to see how they have been treating the place where they were living before . If it looks like a pig pen or if they have multiple animals , this is not someone I want in my unit . If they don ’ t give me this information on the rental application , I won ’ t even consider them to rent my unit .
I know some of this is just common sense but it bears discussion . If a tenant makes it through my rigorous screening process , I also have them pay first month ’ s rent , last month ’ s rent and the security deposit either by cash , cashiers check or by money order . I do not accept personal checks for the movein amounts .
During the following months I do not accept personal checks from them for the rent , we only accept money orders or direct deposit . The first time a check bounces for insufficient funds or any other reason , they must make it good immediately or I will immediately begin the eviction process . This is all covered in the lease they have signed . I also make sure that the person I have putting tenants in units for me thoroughly covers all the items in the lease with them before they sign it .
I also have a separate pet lease which addresses specific rules regarding pets in my units . The pet lease requires that the dog or cat is an indoor pet and I have an additional nonrefundable amount of security deposit for the pet lease and additional pet rent of 25.00 per month . I find that this works out very well . If the tenant gets a pet that is not on the lease , this is grounds for immediate eviction , and we do have someone who checks our units about every 60 days for us to make sure all is well with our rental units .
I also check out where they were living before by going by the address and checking it out
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
72