Deadbeat Tenants

Deadbeat Tenants

Following through on doing a thorough check of a prospective tenant can seem like a daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be.

You’ve called the current landlord, the employer and the references. They all seemed to bend-over-backwards to tell you what a great person tenant x would be. A little too good if you know what I mean. But how do you find out more? Do you not rent to a potentially great tenant because of a gut feeling you have? To you rent to them only to discover you should have listened to your gut?

There are ways to verify the information given and get more information to base your decision on. In a previous post I mentioned the reverse look up for phone numbers. You can also do this for addresses, cell phones, email address etc.

Don’t over look doing a criminal records search, bankruptcy search, search the sex offender registry. Seems a little overwhelming doesn’t it. Not really, if you know where to go. I have found a really great site Click Here! where everything is all in one place. It saves you a lot of time trying to find the right information.

If you’ve been stuck with a deadbeat tenant you can claim this as a loss on your taxes as long as you can show that you tried to collect the debt.

Be wary of the deadbeat tenant who sends you a letter saying they intend to pay you. In some jurisdictions you can’t get a judgment if you can’t prove they intended to rip you off. The professional tenant will cover themselves here by writing a letter saying they never meant to rip you off and intend to pay you.

Good luck in dealing with and avoiding deadbeat and professional tenants.