New Tenant Checks

Hiya,

What do you all request from prospective new tenants if self managing -
-Passport
-Licence / ID with photo
-6 months payslips
-Bank accounts (dating xxxx years/months?)
-Previous Rental history (is this something off a website?)
Check tenant Blacklist - which site do I do this in?
Please add to this list cheers.

Also including gas + water in rent, how much extra should I ask in rent for a 4 bedder and also a 1 bedder granny? Thinking $50/wk for 4 bed and $15-20/wk for 1 bed, is this about right?

Location is Sydney.

Ta
Ron

 

The norm from PMs seems to be:

1. Some sort of photo ID - not everyone has a passport, But certainly a D/L and Birth cert
2. Last 2 payslips with employer details - 6 months is a bit OTT. Its the next six months you need to know they can pay for not the last six.
3. No to bank accounts - nobody asks and they are pointless to ask for
4. Previous rental history with past landlord details (who knows whether the 'landlord' acting as a ref is just a friend or not - its pretty common).
5. Cant comment on the tenancy database, although I doubt one state talks to another so there is probably limited value in it.

I'd also suggest something no PM I've met has ever considered and try to get to know the person first!
Met them over a coffee for an hour one morning (one private LL I had did), or at the very least ask the applicant to write to you telling them a bit about themselves. You will be surprised at the number of space cadets this will immediately cull.

Most of the bog standard letting proccesses are pretty easy to game, and at the end of the day your judge of character will probably save a few ongoing misundertandings.

As for the inclusions I wouldn't bother. For a 1 bed that might be about right (Ive never paid a water bill as a tenant so I wouldn't know), for the 4 bed the variables could get pretty big as there could be one to several people actually living there.

 

Standard practice is 100 point ID check. Something with a photo, something without. Don't ask for birth certificates, legal immigrants may not even have one you can read - usually license and Medicare is enough to get over the line. You'll need this to do a TICA or similar database check anyway.

Agree. It can also be somewhat invasive since their expenses are irrelevant provided you have proof of income and proof of past history - if someone spends a lot of dosh at the local "gentleman's club" then it is unlikely they'll be prepared to furnish bank statements showing this, for example, even if they have comfortably paid $1200 a week in rent for seven years.

If it's a PM in the past history, always call the agency on their main switchboard number and ask to speak to them - if someone is claiming their last rental was from Ray White, calling some random mobile number is questionable at best unless you happen to already know that person/number yourself.

Tenancy databases are national. Either TICA or Equifax.

Some articles on realestate.com.au and some agencies talk up getting a credit report, but real estate agents and landlords are not permitted to run these, and there may be penalties involved if you do.

 

Do these add any value? I had a tenant once that trash my property and was in arrears. When I got everything sorted out, I told the PM to blacklist them on the tenancy database. And they told me the database is useless and they can't do that. But I think on my agency agreement, they charge $45 to run a check on the tenancy database - so go figure.

I thought that was the purpose of the database to blacklist people. Don't know, they could have been lying to me, I've since moved to another agent.

 

Doesn't sound right at all- they can put them on a database if any of the criteria are met (they would've been) and it does help. We check every single applicant on TICA and use the search history records extensively.