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In times of economic crisis property owners go for renting their property instead of selling it. There are various benefits of renting over selling.

You can hire an abstract company to conduct a title search by delving through public records concerning the property's history to be sure that no lien exists. The title search should also indicate if the seller is legally recognized as the property owner, the description of the property, and details of any lien or other holds on the property.

You can take help of letting agents. This system is quite popular in UK. A letting agent works as a mediator between property owners and tenants. The tenant comes into an agreement with the landlord through the letting agent. The letting agent takes a fee which is generally a fraction of the rental fee. There are several benefits of employing letting agents.

Your screening criteria should not be subjective. Rejecting an applicant because they give you a "bad feeling" or because you did not "connect" with them will only run you afoul of Fair Housing laws. Your criteria needs to be objective. Federal law contains seven (7) different protected classes and the state of Wisconsin has a total of twelve (12) protected classes. Local municipalities often have additional protected classes so you must check local ordinances. You may not deny an applicant because they are a member of any of the following protected classes in Wisconsin: race, color, national origin, sex, religion, familial status, handicap, marital status, sexual orientation, lawful source of income, ancestry and age (18 years old and over).

A common misconception is that you cannot reject an applicant because they smoke, becasue they have a money judgment against him/her, or becasue they have been evicted in the past. Smokers, debtors, and people who have been evicted are not members of any protected class under federal or Wisconsin law and therefore your screening criteria can exclude them without violating Wisconsin or federal discrimination laws. Other examples of legal screening criteria in Wisconsin may include the following: (1) Applicant must have gross monthly income of 3 times the monthly rental amount; (2) Applicant must have no unsatisfied money judgments against them; (3) Applicant must have a credit score of at least 600; (4) Applicant must complete all questions on the rental application; failure to answer all questions or provide an acceptable reason for not answering all questions are grounds for denial of your application. What type of screening criteria you have often depends on the location of the rental property, the type of renter you are looking for and a landlord's willingness to tolerate risk.

Third, you should run every applicant's name through Wisconsin's Consolidated Court Automation Program (CCAP). This website lists all criminal and civil legal actions filed throughout Wisconsin. By becoming adept with CCAP's search capabilities you will be able to discover if a prior landlord has started an eviction action against your applicant, if your applicant has ever been charged with a crime, or if they have been sued for owing money to someone and whether or not they have satisfied that judgment. Best of all CCAP is free and open to the public (at least as of this writing however one Wisconsin Assemblyman has introduced a bill that if passsed will significantly restrict CCAP's access to landlords).

Fourth, you should obtain a credit check on any applicant that is still under consideration after you have completed the above three steps. A landlord may require the applicant to pay the actual cost of the credit check up to in Wisconsin. In order to charge this fee however you must obtain the credit report from a consumer reporting agency that compiles and maintains files on consumers on a nationwide basis (TransUnion, Experian or Equifax) and you must notify the applicant of the cost before ordering the report and provide them with a copy of their credit report after it is received.

These four steps for screening and qualifying a prospective applicant for your rental property are the bare minimum that a landlord should to to ensure that s/he is protecting their investment.

Verónica Carrillo V.
Encontrar un Trabajo Empleo es fácil si sabe dónde buscar

Tags: legal