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As innovative living becomes more popular and residents stay for longer, property managers have a duty to screen incoming tenants for suitability, reliability, and compliance.
From checking a potential tenant’s right-to-rent status to reviewing an applicant’s credit and eviction history, PropTech software ensures that incoming guests pay on time, respect your property, and have the legal right to stay. All of which makes your job easier and your innovative living business more profitable.
Not all tenant background check software is the same, so what should you look for? Here’s what you need to know.
Why do you need tenant background check software?
Tenant background check software satisfies your legal obligations as a property manager and avoids problematic tenants. In long-stay residential properties, including coliving spaces and BTR units with a communal focus, it’s important to find right-fit tenants that integrate well into your community. When they feel satisfied, it increases their chances of extending stays.
- Financial proofing. Reliable tenants maximise your unit’s revenue potential. Before accepting their rental application, you first must check if they can afford the rent and if they have had any difficulties paying rent on time in a previous living situation. Use credit check software to analyse credit history (i.e. record of late payments), verifying income in minutes (through pay slips, bank statements or tax returns). This process sheds light on prospective tenants’ financial stability and their suitability for your property, and is much faster than performing any manual checks.
- Legal obligations. By law, all UK private landlords are required to check their tenants’ ‘right-to-rent’ status. But, manually reviewing tenants’ IDs, visas and proof of address to confirm their right to stay is time-consuming and unreliable. Using ID check software not only automates the process, but when connected to your property management system (PMS), it enables you to track, store, and organise guest details too.
- Risk mitigation. Your residents must respect your property and abide by your rules, whether it’s avoiding anyone with a history of hosting late-night parties during short-stays or troublesome long-stay tenants. Rental check software identifies eviction history or property damage while using digital inventory software, such as Inventory Hive, catches potential upkeep issues before the agreement begins, helping you avoid management headaches later down the line.
“Inventories used to be tedious manual processes with residents and operators on opposing sides, but with co-produced inventory reports, residents and operators are now on the same team.” Alex Gooch, Head of Build-to-Rent & Customer Success, Inventory Hive
What are the main benefits of tenant background check software?
By leveraging tenant background check software through your property management system, you will:
- Generate more revenue. Accurate and reliable screening software ensures you’ve accepted guests who are able to pay on time throughout their tenancy. This protects your cash flow, so you can plan for business growth with confidence. What’s more, tenant background software enables you to take bookings from anywhere around the world (you don’t need to meet in person to get a feel for a tenant’s suitability), and avoid the financial burden of problematic tenants. For example, in coliving spaces, a disrespectful tenant could lead to other residents leaving, while a ‘good’ tenant who makes 1-3 friends in the community during their stay is 38% more likely to renew their contract.
- Improve guest satisfaction. Pre-arrival questionnaires and background check software helps you select the right guests for your property type, enhancing the all-round guest experience. For instance, in a suburban BTR complex, find families that stay for 3+ years and build good relationships with other residents. In addition, digital background check software speeds up the verification process, ensuring hassle-free applications that improves the guest booking experience. Incoming guests also avoid answering awkward questions directly to property managers (i.e. regarding their financial situation) and have the confidence that all other guests can be trusted.
- Enhance property manager productivity. Your properties are your most valuable assets - any damage to them not only incurs repairs costs, but temporarily takes units ‘off the market,’ negatively impacting your property managers’ time and headspace. Tenant background check software, such as Superhog, reduces the chance of disrespectful or negligent residents (i.e. avoiding a booking from a group of rowdy students in your serviced apartment building that caters to business travellers), as well as one-off incidents like parties, which protects your property's condition, ensures you respect local laws (i.e. noise complaints) and saves property managers from burnout.
What background check software do you need for short, medium and long stays?
Beyond universal compliance requirements, such as right-to-rent rules, the type of background checks you prioritise vary depending on your property type and guests’ length of stay.
- Short-stay. As most guests pay for their stay up front, financial checks are less important. Instead, check that guests aren't renting an apartment for a party, like hen and stags do, or for anti-social reasons.
- Medium-stay. The UK and EU allows a 90 day visa-free stay for most international visitors. If a tenant wants to stay longer, you’re required by law to validate their IDs, visas, and address, ensuring they have funds to pay bills during their stay.
- Long-stay. Tenant screening is essential for long-stays to avoid financial, legal and maintenance complications. Credit and employment checks, such as Canopy’s credit checks, confirm that long-stay guests can pay their bills throughout their tenancy. Meanwhile, character references from previous landlords and inventory checks confirm tenants suitability, so they won’t cause any damage to your properties.
“The Canopy-res:harmonics integration provides a 'hands-off' tenant referencing service, delivering results quickly but without sacrificing thoroughness and quality.” Lee Power, Head of Sales at Canopy.
How res:harmonics PMS ensures seamless tenancy background checks
With res:harmonics’ tenant background check software, there’s no paperwork, hassle or delays when screening a tenant, so you can focus on growing your business whether you specialise on short, medium, or long-stays (or even flexible stays). Our unified platform simplifies tenant screening with built-in features and integrations, including financial checks, Know Your Customer (KYC) software and digital inventory software. For example, our long-stay booking process includes a variety of tenant background checks, storing all essential information in your PMS.
Download the Ultimate Guide to Long-Stay Bookings to learn how property management software supports long-stays.
Request a demo to speak to someone at res:harmonics about how our software can automate and scale up your long-stay offer.
