Questions for Other Landlords...

We use Rental Services, Inc. in Denver to do a background check including credit, criminal, evictions, and employment. It is not fool-proof or a guarantee, but we have only needed to evict one out of the five tenants at this point, and they just had a run of bad luck job, health, and family wise that depleted their resources. Unfortunately, they also smoked in the house and weren't supposed to, so we incurred more damages on that. We increased our pet deposit after that, too. We ask for $300, $150 is refundable if all damages and rent is paid, but there is also $15/month pet rent that is non-refundable in addition to the other $150. We called apartment complexes, and this was rather low, but we feel it covers us sufficiently (at least at this point in time).

You can contact an attorney to help you recover costs, or a collections agency. The nice thing about the collections agency route is that there will then be a record on the person's credit report that signals the next landlord (assuming they do a complete background check) that there were issues with their prior rental (yours!).

I am really sorry you had to go through this. It is NOT fun. You can also just say, "NO pets" if you don't want to deal. We've had numerous people look at our places that did not have pets. People with pets I think tend to look to the smaller landlords specifically because they don't charge as much pet deposit and pet rent. Call around to a few apartment complexes and ask about their pet policy. It's an eye-opener!

Good luck. Call if you want the name of collections agencies. I haven't used one yet, but have interviewed two that were recommended to me.

H.

I always ask for the names and phone numbers for the last three landlords so I can call and get information on the renters. Asking for just the last one might not prove to be fruitful, as they might just give you a glowing report to get rid of the tenant. When you talk to the landlords, ask where the property was and do an ownership search on the property (usually found in county records online). Also ask them if the tenant received their full damage deposit back. If things do not look or sound right (the owner is not the person you called, or the property is not what the owner said), then look for another tenant.

Guess you can ask for references from prior landlords, but they can fake that easily. I'd say one of the best things you can do is get a good rental agreement in place including the proper wording for damages and their responsibility in it all. I've had clients who really benefited from the access to legal counsel when they had renter problems too. Just knowing what your rights are and how to go about things is very powerful. I'm a rep with Pre-Paid Legal Services and have had the service for the past 7 years. It has helped me recover over 20K and I can't even quantify the $, time and aggravation it has saved me. greatlegalhelp.com gives a great overview. Plans start as low as 55 cents a day. Email me if you want to know more. There is so much power in knowledge and maybe they can even help you recover some of your losses. It is amazing that some people have no respect for other people's property. Good luck.
S.

I use # 1 Background Checks. It costs $39.95 for a full tenant report which includes evictions, credit report, criminal history, and previous address information. We have mutliple tenants, and it is amazing what can happen in short periods of time regardless of the due diligence completed up front. Based on experience, I have made my application process more difficult, and do schedule quarterly inspections of all of the properties. I require an application fee ($35) and am very thorough when reviewing the application. I require 3 years previous rental history, personal references, employment for previous 3 years and make all of the calls. During this process, I usually speak with the applicants one to two additional times after initial showing and 'interview' for further information/clarification. I also require meeting all pets prior to move in. I do have units that we do not allow pets in, which do take slightly longer to rent, but it is still not an issue (they do exist). Good luck.

I feel your pain we went with a 90 day (trial ) contract and it was a friend of friend. I am not sure they ever picked up a vacuum. There was $3,000.00 of damage in 3 months! They also told us their dogs were kennel trained. We ended up selling the property but I did get some good advice from landlords that do it for a living.
1) They charge a $25.00 processing fee to even accept an application and meet with a client. This shows they are serious about renting your place
2) Video with the client for a walk thru and have them sign a checkofflist of condition of the property.
3) Call their place of work and verify employment.
4) Never rent a house you have emotional ties to. Hire a firm to take care of it for you.
5) Notify neighbors of the rental status and provide your phone number for any problems.
6) Set up a standard maintenance schedule with the renter so you can check on the property.
7) Require a large pet deposit
8) Don't be the nice guy you are the landlord. We left furniture for our renters and allowed them to pay the deposit in increments to help them out. BIG MISTAKE trying to be the nice guy.

Good luck. It is a shame that people can't take care of other peoples things. We ended up selling our property. It was our first home. We realized the home was just not a rental and even though we took a hit in the housing market to sell it was certainly less devasting then having to redo the work again because people are SLOBS.The best advice was if you have emotional ties to the house then hire a firm to handle the rental for you or sell it. We are so much happier not being landlords. It just was not the business for us.

We also have a rental house and found it near impossible to find a renter without a pet. The only advice I can give is collecting a large damage deposit. I know sometimes it is not enough though. We were duped by one potential renter, and have since been in the same situation. Not sure this helps much, but I can sympathize.