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How the Coronavirus Pandemic Could Change How Landlords Background Check Tenants

By: Issuewire

Swansea, Illinois May 8, 2021 (Issuewire.com) - With last year's coronavirus pandemic, the world was under lockdown in most countries to prevent the spread of covid-19.  The lockdown suspended most non-essential businesses, services and confined people to their houses. As the world economy virtually crashed, this created a negative effect on the already complicated relationships between tenants and landlords. Before the pandemic, landlords were able to go to civil courts to hold eviction proceedings for tenants who did not pay rent. Due to governments across the world trying to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, some state and local governments mandated a halt to evictions, better known as the eviction moratorium. In the United States (US), most local and state governments implemented some form of eviction protection to tenants as recommended by the Central Control for Diseases or CDC. Here is a list of potential consequences that can arise for landlords and tenants when conducting tenant background checks.

 

More Stringent Background Checks on Tenants

Before the pandemic, landlords and property managers would conduct a tenant background check for applicants who applied for rental property. Although, before the pandemic, conducting background checks on tenants was common, there were landlords willing to rent to applicants who had infractions on their records like criminal records. Most landlords are willing to overlook criminal records as long as the tenant could pay rent. The coronavirus pandemic caused most landlords to lose tens of thousands of dollars of rent money that can be used for repair on property, taxes, and other duties that come with rental property. With the loss of revenue, landlords and property managers had to either sell their properties, declare bankruptcy, or raise rental prices for other current tenants and future tenants. Landlords will now be adding more comprehensive searches into conducting background checks on their tenants. These new services include:

  • Eviction Reports
  • Credit Reports

 

How Landlords Use Eviction Reports

As the world tries to recover from the pandemic more businesses and services are reopening, more states and cities are lifting eviction bans. With the reopening of courts, landlords can proceed with eviction filings and the eviction process. When a tenant loses an eviction case the tenant is served an eviction notice. After the allotted time is up, the landlord may evict the tenant with the help of the county sheriffs. This eviction is then stored on the tenant's record in the eviction databases. Landlords and property managers use the eviction report search to look into a tenant's rental history. This eviction report calculates a tenant's risk in the application process.

 

How Landlords Use Credit Reports

For most landlords running credit reports was not a big deal unless the property in question was valued on the high end. With the new wave of evictions, landlords can also take tenants to court for unpaid rent. Although landlords generally do not report unpaid rent to the credit bureaus, if a tenant's account goes to collections, the collection agency will report it. Landlords will now implement more credit reports on rental applicants as another risk calculation. Having a low credit score may hinder an applicant's ability to rent property from landlords.

 

With the toll this pandemic has taken on the rental property industry, landlords may now be changing how they conduct a tenant background search. These consequences can include more barriers to a rental property, higher rent, and higher rental application fees which include the background check the tenant may be required to pay.

Media Contact

The Koleman Group LLC


info@thekolemangroupcreen.com

6183983900

4010 North Illinois St Ste B6

https://thekolemangoupscreen.com/tenant-background-check

Source :The Koleman Group LLC

This article was originally published by IssueWire. Read the original article here.

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