How to Avoid Bad Tenants
Proactive, Not Reactive
By Alexandra Nakhoul, SFPG
16 March 2017
Doctors often say prevention is better than a cure. It is on the basis of this philosophy in which we approach dealing with bad tenants; we do our best to avoid them altogether.
When placing your property on the rental market, there are risks involved in leasing it out to prospective tenants. With that being said, there are procedures in place that mitigate the possibility of selecting bad tenants.
The professionalism of your management agency is important to the image formed by renters in the market. It is always important for Property Managers to give an impression of professionalism so as to deter bad tenants. One way of executing this is through the use of professional photos. Consider the impact of using a poorly cropped photo taken on your phone of a messy, cluttered and unpresentable property; not only does this potentially lessen the value of your rental property, it also diminishes any perception of professionalism and gives a bad tenant the impression that it may be easier to get away with things. The professional image you present will often be reciprocated with good tenants who uphold the quality of the property and pay rent on time.
Comprehensive tenant screening is simultaneously as important as professional photos. While professional photos generally attract the ‘right’ group of people, tenant screening via a comprehensive tenancy application form will expose the disparity between a good and bad tenant. Prospective tenants are asked to provide the landline to reception for contact to their current Property Manager to ensure legitimacy. The quality of the candidate is assured by answers to questions such as their current rental payment per week, the period of time in which they’ve occupied their current rental property, if there were any occupants or pets not stated on the lease and the state of the property at the time of their last inspection.
SFPG Tenancy Application Form: Current Rental Details
A prospective tenant’s current employment details are also sought via a landline to their payroll and employment managers to determine their financial position and ability to meet rental payments.
SFPG Tenancy Application Form: Current Employment
In order to successfully process an application, candidates are also required to provide 100 Points of ID, preferably a Driver’s License, Passport, a Bank Statement (with six months’ transaction history), a copy of their Payslip and a Rental Ledger for their current rental property. A concern occasionally raised by clients when undertaking tenant screening is that this process can be quite lengthy and somewhat intrusive. However, we find that it only deters bad tenants and engages good tenants who will willingly consent by signing a privacy statement provided.
The professional image you present, coupled with thorough tenant screening, may well and truly be the key to saving you from the horror of bad tenants and selecting the right one to occupy your property…
If you are seeking advice on how to secure a good tenant, please contact the SFPG Property Management team on (02) 9091 8075 or Oliver Quach on mobile 0433 320 442 or at oliverquach@sfpg.com.au.
