If you are a landlord then you would have to be crazy not to use credit checks to vet tenants.
You may just want to call up a few of their references, like old landlords or their employer to ask about them, or maybe you would rather pay a company to do this for you.
You do this because it makes sense to find out what kind of financial history they have.
By checking you are likely to save yourself a world of hassle later on.
Whenever someone applies for a lease they have to put their name, address, social security number and when they were born on the form.
This is all you need to do a decent credit check on them.
If you are going to do one, you need to tell the person that you are going to do it and when it will be performed.
Often, this will be part of the tenancy form that you get them to fill out before leasing.
If not, then you should get this consent on another form, as it is vital that you have permission.
No matter how you get it, make sure you do.
Quite frequently, due to time constraints, most property owners will hire a specialist company to do the check.
This can be costly, and often the property owner will pass this cost on to the potential tenant.
Depending on whom you use, the company will either give you a price for each check or they will charge an annual amount for you to subscribe to their service.
As well as doing normal credit checks, they will often be able to scrutinize employment and criminal pasts, former rental issues, insolvencies and all other pertinent information.
You need to play by the book, so if they fail the check you need to tell them this in writing.
You do not have to tell them the precise reasoning for this failure, just as long as you say it was due to the credit check results.