Both the landlord and the tenant need to fact check
28th April 2021
Some people think that renting a house is easier than buying one because rental contracts are usually for one to two years. If the rented unit is not ideal, they can move out after the lease ends. The worst-case scenario is moving in and wanting to move out on the first day, but the amount of rent paid for a year is a limited sum. However, in reality, renting a house requires more careful handling than buying one. If fact checking is not done properly, it can lead to trouble in the future.
When the owner rents out the unit, legally speaking, they are leasing the right of residence to the tenant. Once the tenant moves in, the owner is no allowed longer to enter the unit. If the owner encounters a "rental bully", they will not only suffer financial losses but also be deprived of the right to live in the unit. Even if they can eventually regain possession through legal means, it is often a chaotic and messy process due to the actions of the rental bully. In short, the losses incurred are severe.
To reduce the risk of encountering a problem tenant, the key is to carefully select renters. Generally, individuals with stable income such as civil servants, healthcare professionals, law enforcement personnel, and teachers are most welcomed by landlords. In addition, employees of large corporations are also favorable choices. Employing fact-checking methods to verify their job position from the mentioned industries is easiest for these professionals. They typically have pay stubs, staff identification cards, or business cards from their employers to provide such information. While these documents cannot guarantee that a tenant won't become a problem, they at least demonstrate that the tenant has sufficient financial capability to rent property.
If landlords want to further verify whether a tenant has been blacklisted or engaged in rental harassment, they can inquire with companies or organizations that possess such information.
The landlord has the right to verify the identity of the tenant, and the tenant also has the right to verify that the unit's owner and the person signing the lease are the same. The basic practice is to obtain property information through registers, find all the owner information of the unit from the register data, and then compare whether all owners have signed the lease when signing the lease. Otherwise, there is a chance that the unit is rented out without the knowledge of the owner, rendering the lease invalid.
In addition, tenants should also pay attention to whether there any are records of demolition orders, repair orders, or other court orders in the unit they are renting. Although tenants are not responsible for expenses the related to these orders, renting such a unit may require them to assist the landlord in inconiencingven situations, as allowing such repair personnel to enter the property. Furthermore, court orders may even require tenants to move out immediately. Therefore, it is best for tenants to avoid choosing to rent a unit with any such orders in the property search records.