Posts Tagged Screening Tenants

What Questions Should You Ask An Applicant’s Current and/or Prior Landlord During The Screening Process

Nov 19

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Screening Tenants | 2 Comments

Screening applicants/potential tenants is the single most important element of landlording in my opinion.  As I have mentioned in prior posts, if you properly screen your applicants you will have a better chance of finding a good tenant that pays rent on time and does not abuse your investment property.

Landlords should require each adult person to completely fill out a written rental application.  After you have all this good information about your applicant you now need to confirm that info.  You have not conducted a thorough screening until you have confirmed all of the information that was provided to you in the application. 

Some of that info is more important than others.  In my experience the most important information that you need to confirm about a potential tenant is: (1) the applicant’s current and prior rental history, (2) the applicant’s employment information, and (3) whether or not the applicant has been evicted, had a money judgment taken against them, or been charged/convicted with a crime  — this information, at least for now, can be obtained through CCAP. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags:

UPDATE ON AB-340 (CCAP BILL)

Oct 9

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in CCAP, Rep. Marlin Schneider, Screening Tenants | 3 Comments

As many of you know a public hearing was held on AB340 – the proposed bill by Rep. Marlin Schneider that would restrict who can use CCAP and what information would be contained on CCAP — at the State Capitol in Madison last week.

Several board members from the AASEW (Dave Ohrmundt and Richard Bishop) and the head of Milwaukee RING (Brian Fleming) attended the hearing to make sure that landlords’ voices were heard.  We appreciate you guys taking the time out of your busy schedules to attend.

A fellow landlord-tenant law blogger from the Wausau area (Dr. Rent a/k/a John Fischer) also attended the public hearing and even testified wrote a recent blog post on the bill and the hearing that gives you his views on the proposed bill and what his thoughts are regarding if it will succeed.  Dr. Rent writes a great blog and if you enjoy my blog you should also sign up for his blog.

Arguments were presented both for and against the propsoed legislation.  On a practical level I thought it was very telling the the director of state courts (who under the proposed bill would be in charge of registering CCAP users and monitoring their searches) felt that the cost and time involved would be a huge undertaking.  It might have been a good idea for the bills’ sponsors to have spoken with the director of state courts and attempted to get him on their side prior to the public hearing.

Two recent articles written about the hearing and AB340 in general were published.  The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote an article on the hearing and the Racine Journal Times also had a good piece on the proposed legislation.  Columnist, Patrick McIlheran, of the Journal Sentinel also wrote a recent piece on Schneider’s proposed CCAP bill.

The Wisconsin State Journal also published an editorial regarding AB-340.

I was also interviewed for an article by the Wisconsin Law Journal about the proposed CCAP legislation. This article does not focus on how AB340 will affect landlords but rather how it might affect lawyers ability to screen their own clients and related issues.

Tags: , ,

The Importance of Using Written Screening Criteria During The Tenant Selection Process

Oct 2

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Rental Documents, Screening Tenants | 3 Comments

           Those of you that have attended one of my landlord-tenant law seminars or read my prior posts on screening tenants know that in my opinion the screening process is the single most important aspect of being a landlord.  If done properly, the screening process can save a landlord from many headaches such as: having to evict a bad tenant, repairing your damaged rental property, dealing with other tenants complaining about your loud and disruptive tenant, and/or having your rental property declared to be a public nuisance due to the bad behavior of  your tenant and his/her guests.  By properly screening your tenants you will significantly reduce your exposure to the above situations.

          One key aspect of the screening process is having and using written screening criteria.  Screening criteria sets forth the minimum requirements that an individual must meet in order to be able to rent from you.  Looking at it another way, screening criteria also sets forth what will cause an applicant to be denied rental from you. 

          Here is an example of written screening criteria.  Please be aware that this screening criteria is pretty stringent.  I am not saying that you should or should not use this criteria -  you must determine what criteria works for you and that is based on many factors which  I will not be addressing in this post.  I am linking to this sample screening criteria so that you have some examples of permissable (and legal) criteria so that you can better understand this post. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ,

WTMJ News Radio Discusses Proposed Legislation That Will Restrict Access To and Limit Information Contained on CCAP on Charlie Sykes Radio Show

Sep 17

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in CCAP, Rep. Marlin Schneider, Screening Tenants | No Comments

Thursday, September 17, 2009 was quite a good PR day for landlords.  Not only did the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel commentator Pat McIlheran publish a very good article criticizing the state and the city of Milwaukee for not treating  landlords like second class citizens but later that same morning Charlie Sykes spent a good amount of time discussing something near and dear to a landlord’s heart — CCAP

Sykes spent a large portion of his final hour discussing State. Rep. Marlin’s Schneider’s latest attempt to restrict access to CCAP and to limit the information contained on CCAP.

If you would like to listen to or download the podcast of Sykes’ discussion of this topic click here and then click on the entry entitled “Sykes Show part 3 – Thursday 9/17/09″

Tags: , ,

SSN Validator: Free Website That Allows You to Verify A Social Security Number

Aug 19

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in AASEW, Screening Tenants | 1 Comment

I attended last night’s AASEW monthly meeting which featured Kathy Huens of Landlord Services, LLC as the main speaker.  Landlord Services, LLC is a company that provides credit reports to landlords to assist them in the screening process of rental applicants.  Landlord Services, LLC is a business member of the AASEW and comes highly reccomended.  During Kathy’s speech she alerted the audience to a website that allows you to verify certain information regarding a person’s social security number.

SSN Validator allows you to input a person’s social security number and will then provide you with basic information such as: Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ,

Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8 Rent Assistance) Are Not A “Lawful Source of Income” In Wisconsin

Aug 13

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Fair Housing / Discrimination, Protected Classes, Screening Tenants | 2 Comments

I am often asked whether or not a landlord is able to legally decline to rent to a tenant that is receiving “rent assistance.”   I believe that the primary reason that landlords are unsure of the answer to this question  is because Wisconsin’s Open Housing Act (Sec. 106.50, Wis. Stats.) prohibits a landlord from discriminating against a tenant or a prospective tennat based on their ”lawful source of income.”  For more information on Wisconsin’s protected classes you should read my prior post entitled “FAIR HOUSING – Part 1:  What Are The Protected Classes?” Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , ,

AASEW’s Response to Rep. Schneider’s CCAP Legislation Can Be Found at www.DefeatAB340.org

Jul 20

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in AASEW, CCAP, Rep. Marlin Schneider, Screening Tenants | 5 Comments

For those of you that have been following my blog, you are well aware that State Rep. Marlin Schneider (D-Wisconsin Rapids) has introduced yet another bill attempting to restrict the public’s access to CCAP.  This new bill also will remove certain information from even being included on CCAP.  My prior blogs on this topic can be read here, here and here. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , ,