The real estate business seems highly lucrative but comes with potential risks affecting finances. For instance, landlords may consistently deal with tenants who hesitate or refuse to pay rent. Some even go as far as leaving debts behind to move elsewhere – little wonder there are several searches all over the internet with questions like: “How to find previous tenants of my house?” While there are ways how to locate a former tenant, landlords may find financial advice on how to manage tenant debt and maximize rental income useful. Find out what to know in this article.
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Contents
How Can Landlords Manage Tenant Debt?
If you are a landlord, your honest wish is to find a cooperative tenant who wouldn’t leave you with debts, thus affecting rental income. Unfortunately, finding cooperative tenants seems almost impossible, especially as people are willing to leave debts behind. However, you could use the below tips as they may help your finances long-term.
1. Run Background Checks on Tenants:
Before you rent a property to someone, you should invest in a proper background check. You should know vital things about the person so that if they default in the future, you can use whatever information against them. There are a series of ways to perform background screening on renters: background checkers or people search tools. These platforms provide crucial information available to the public about the person, such as employment history, former address history, education, arrest records, etc.
2. Locate a Former Tenant:
If, unfortunately, the person decides to abscond without paying rent, you should learn how to locate former tenants. You need to do this to manage tenant debt and have appropriate authorities involved. This simple act may have you protecting other landlords who may fall victim to the person’s schemes.
How To Locate a Former Tenant?
Information is power, and if you are willing to know how to find ex-tenants new addresses, you will use whatever you have at your disposal. However, to simplify it, below are three effective ways to find this person owing you debts.
Use Debtor Tracing Tools:
One of the easiest ways how to find a former tenant is by using reliable debtor tracing tools. They are super helpful platforms designed to help landlords trace tenants that have absconded without paying their last rent. These companies or platforms have an algorithm system that detects a renter’s activity regarding housing based on the information provided by the landlord. So, if a previous tenant is about to get a new place and is registered, the debtor tracing company is alerted and will provide the previous landlord with whatever they need.
Apart from debtor tracing tools, you can also use people search tools to discover their new location. Quite a number of them are available online for free or paid subscription.
Get Information Off Rental Application:
Knowing how to locate past tenants isn’t complex as long as you have the right information. A good source of information is their old rental application. Generally, before renting your property to someone, you may have asked them to provide specific details that could be used in the future. You can always refer back to this application and check out a specific detail that can be used to trace the debtor. It could be their phone number, family relative’s address, etc.
Check Their Place of Work:
Most times, landlords request that tenants provide their employment details before renting out an apartment. The reason sometimes is to determine their source of income – knowing if they could keep up with paying rent. However, if such a person runs off owing money, you can always visit the place of employment and request their presence. If the person no longer works there, the management or a staff member should have leading clues on where to look next.
Conclusion
Every landlord needs good financial advice because that is the only way to manage tenant debts and maximize real estate income. No one wants their source of livelihood to be affected by someone who is irresponsible. Above are ways how to locate a former tenant; use them effectively, and you may just save yourself from tenant debt now or in the future.
