FREE 5+ Tenant Background Check Forms in PDF

Accepting strangers in a dwelling unit is not ideal, regardless of the unit is for renting or for leasing. This is why landlords and property owners must gather data about their prospective tenants and rental applicants before signing and starting a lease with them. This can effectively be done with the use of a tenant background check form.

Tenant Background Check Authorization Form

What Are Tenant Background Check Forms?

Tenant background check forms are documents which are used by landlords, property rental or lease agents, and property owners to obtain the personal information as well as the authorization of a tenant for a verification procedure. Some of the tenant’s information which will be verified include the tenant’s occupation or work history and the tenant’s credit history.

Tenant Background Check Credit Report Consent Form

Tenant Background Check Disclosure Form

How to Create a Basic Tenant Background Check Consent Form

A tenant background check consent form is a specific variety of tenant background check form which is solely intended for documenting the consent of the tenant to the intent of the authority to conduct verification and inspection procedures to determine the tenant’s criminal history records. To create a basic tenant background check consent form, the steps below must be followed:

Step 1: Place the name of the authority or the organization who will regulate tenancy and rental verification procedures. The name of the agency or organization must be accompanied by their logo and their contact information.

Step 2: Make a tenant information section. This section should be able to collect the tenant’s full legal name along with the other names that he had previously used or his aliases, his contact numbers, date of birth, biological sex orientation, gender identity, and social security number.

Step 3: Add an area for the address information of the tenant. The tenant should be required to disclose four addresses. The first address to state in this section would be the tenant’s current residential address while the other three addresses are those wherein the tenant had signed a rental agreement or a lease in order to reside in the property. In addition, an area for the tenant’s co-occupants or family members who are living in the stated addresses and are not in the minority age should also be collected in this section of the form along with their dates of birth and their relationship with the tenant.

Step 4: State a question relating to the tenant’s criminal convictions. The question should aim to obtain the tenant’s full disclosure about the criminal convictions, actions, and the penalties that he faced. On the other hand, the question can also be simply answered by the tenant with a “yes or no” answer depending on the range of information needed for the verification procedure.

Step 5: Incorporate a consent and attestation statement. The consent statement should indicate the tenant’s granted permission and consent to the organization to use his disclosed information for the verification process, while the eligibility statement must state that he is able, of legal age, and that he understands the purpose of the consent form. A signature block for the tenant and the date when he signed the form should also be placed in this section, below the statements.

Step 6: Add sections to be filled out by the landlord and the authorized representative of the organization. These sections should document the basic data of the landlord and the representative.

Lastly, the form must be saved into the desired format of the organization, either in “.DOC” or in “.PDF”. Each format variety differs on its features and limitations which is why it is essential that the organization have decided on how they will distribute and use the forms for their tenants, clients, and property owners.

Prospective Tenant Background Check Consent Form

What Other Elements and Sections to Include in a Tenant Background Check Form?

Tenant background check forms will vary on the main subject or factor to be checked by the landlord and property owner. However, regardless of its variety, there are some elements which can be added or be a part of the addendum to be sent to the tenant in lieu of the background checking procedure, and these are enlisted below:

• The tenant’s acknowledgment to confidential and private information: It is common that during a background check, the investigators will need to dig up deeper details about the tenant in order to determine whether or not he is a suitable resident for the property. And some of the details which may be acquired are considered confidential by the tenant. This is why a statement regarding the tenant’s knowledge about the possibility of confidential details to be obtained by the investigators must be placed into the form along with a confidentiality agreement to be signed by all parties involved in the procedure.

• The tenant’s acceptance to the finalized decision of the landlord: Even if a tenant is deemed to have unsatisfactory records, a landlord can still choose to accept the tenant. On the other hand, there are also instances when a landlord will decline a tenant’s rental application due to the results of the verification, and this is the reason why the form must have a statement which centers on the tenant’s acceptance of the landlord’s decision. This ensures that the tenant will not be causing any harm to the landlord or to sue the landlord because of the declined application.

• The period of the screening and verification process, and the disposal of the tenant’s results and information: In the tenant background check form, the dates when the verification process will take place should be specified to inform the tenant of when his data will be used, and when the results will be reported to the landlord and the property owner. Furthermore, the length of time when the authorities or the organization and the landlord will keep the tenant’s data and records should also be indicated which is often allowed for a month to three years depending on the rules of the country or State.

Tenant Background Investigation Consent Form

Tenant Background Screening Criteria Form

To conclude, tenant background check forms are not only mere documents which should be filled out and be kept by parties of a rental or lease agreement since this form is a tool for knowing more about the tenants who will be dwelling in the leased property.