How to Screen Tenants: A Landlord's Guide to Background Checks
Published 2026-06-24
A bad tenant can cost you months of lost rent and thousands in damage. Good screening is the cheapest insurance you’ll ever buy. Here’s how to do it properly — and legally.
What to check
- Credit report — payment history and debt load signal whether rent will be paid on time.
- Criminal history — review consistent with your state and local fair-housing rules.
- Eviction records — past evictions are one of the strongest predictors of future problems.
- Income verification — a common guideline is gross monthly income of about 3x the rent.
- References — prior landlords and employers.
Stay FCRA-compliant
If you use a screening report to deny an applicant or set different terms, the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires an adverse-action notice. Apply the same criteria to every applicant to stay on the right side of fair-housing law. Never collect or store sensitive data like full SSNs yourself — use a compliant screening provider.
Screening inside PropertyFolio
PropertyFolio runs Checkr background checks (credit, criminal history, eviction records, and SSN trace) right from the tenant profile, with an FCRA-compliant approve/reject flow — the applicant submits their own information, and the SSN is never stored. Screening is available on the Starter plan and above.
Bottom line
Screen every applicant the same way, verify income, check credit/eviction/criminal history through a compliant provider, and document your decision. It’s the single highest-ROI step in renting a property.