Although Sandy Hutchens work focus is on tenants' rights, it is true that landlords have rights also and that disputes should ideally be resolved in a non-adversarial manner. This article deals with issues that are of concern to landlord's.

Screening tenants

Tenants sometimes need to move before a lease is up. In a decent rental market (for landlords), a new tenant can be found without much time or effort. When there are more tenants in number than rental units, landlords have more choice in allowing tenants to sublet.

When, on the other hand, the rental market has excess inventory and filling vacancies is not as easy, a tenant who wishes to sublease to another person could be doing the landlord a big favor. For sure the challenges of advertising and showing the rental unit are taken away—but there are many things to consider before permitting a sublease.

In the case of a sublease, a tenant who wishes to move without breaking his or her rental agreement “leases the lease”, as it were, to another person, who agrees to the terms of the agreement. The original tenant is still responsible for the lease, and the landlord must approve the arrangement in advance.

However tenants don’t always seek the landlord's permission. If you’re receiving rent checks signed by John Doe for a unit that was leased to Jonathan Smithy—you may have an unapproved sublease situation on your hands. You are not obligated to accept Jonathan Smithy’s sublease if you did not agree to it from the outset. Check with your legal professional, but you might be able to start an eviction process in a case like this.

In the current rental market, it is probably a good idea to offer Jonathan Smithy a new lease—if she passes your tenant screening process first. It is entirely up to a landlord as to whether to enter into an agreement or whether to evict.

It’s not easy to find someone who has not been adversely affected by the economy of the past year. This includes people that want to be your tenants. What should you be on the alert for when running a tenant credit checks? If so many people have poor credit, what is the point in doing a credit check? Should landlords and property managers lower their expectation in the face of a rise in rental vacancies?

The money and time you invest in doing diligent tenant screening will more than pay for itself when you consider the long term cost of having to evict or clean up after bad tenants.

Should you lower your expectations? This is a tough rental market for landlords, with rental rates down and vacancies up. You have to decide whether to keep your standards high—and risk empty units—or take your chances by lowering them so you can fill your properties. Veteran landlords find that empty units are much better than renting to bad tenants. It depends on your tolerance to risk ratio, and your cash flow.

You are allowed to ask if your prospective client has had a bankruptcy. It is wise to communicate honestly with your tenants from the beginning. If you find out there is a bankruptcy on the credit check, you should ask what happened. You may find out that medical bills caused the tenant to become bankrupt, or perhaps an ex spouse was really the cause.

Take the big picture of the prospective tenant’s credit history. If a bankruptcy is several years in the past, and everything else looks good, they are possibly an acceptable risk. If the bankruptcy was due to their business failing, the economy could be the cause rather than the tenant. Previous evictions and utility judgments are bigger red flags to many landlords than bankruptcies.

Do not ignore your intuition. If someone seems dishonest, they very well may be. You have to decide for yourself whether a poor credit score or bankruptcy is worth the risk.