Yes, with Baselane, you can screen potential tenants! You can verify the applicants' credit reports, income, eviction history, and criminal history to help you make an informed decision.
Tenant screening can help you assess whether the tenant will abide by the rules of the lease or rental agreement, care for the property, stay long-term or short-term, and identify potential risks such as non-payment of rent, noise complaints, or poor credit scores.
Some key benefits you can get from tenant screening with Baselane, that would allow you to get a full picture and avoid costly mistakes:
- Verifying tenant income using real-time bank data.
- Spotting eviction history with daily updated court records.
- Accessing Equifax Credit Reports for a complete view of tenant reliability.
- Screening against 1.8 billion records for criminal history checks.
- Validating tenant identities with advanced ID verification.
- This feature is integrated seamlessly into the Baselane platform, allowing you to manage tenant applications and your rental finances in one place.
In this article:
- Setting up tenant screening
- Inviting applicants
- Editing an active screening
- Viewing reports and making a decision
- Pausing incoming reports
- FAQ
To set up tenant screening
1. Within your Baselane workspace, navigate to the Tenant Screening menu on the left, then click "Set up screening" in the center of the page.
2. You'll be prompted to select a property to begin the tenant screening. It will include the property's availability date and the rent amount.
If you haven't set up the property yet, this Help Center article provides instructions on how to do so.
3. Next, you can select the Basic reporting or Enhanced reporting:
A) Basic reporting $24.99 (paid by the applicant)
- The applicant's self-reported information includes
- housing history
- dependents
- pets
- vehicles
- smoking habits.
- Photo ID
- Equifax credit report.
B) Enhanced reporting (Additional reports paid by the applicant)
Includes Basic reporting by default. Additionally, it may include (depending on the jurisdiction):
- Criminal report ($5.00)
- Eviction report ($10.00)
- Income verification ($10.00)
4. Check off the boxes, and click on "Start Screening".
Once the screening is set up, you can invite the applicants to complete the screening
1. Within your Baselane workspace, navigate to the Tenant Screening menu on the left, then click on the property you've set up a screening for.
2. Click on "Invite applicants" in the top right-hand corner of the page
3. In the drawer that opens up, you can invite applicants to complete the screening in one of two ways:
- Enter applicants' emails (you can invite multiple applicants), then click "Send invitations." The applicants will receive an email inviting them to complete the screening.
- Copy the application link and manually send it to the applicants
4. Once your applicant(s) click on the link, they'll be forwarded to a third-party website where they can complete the screening.
Please note that the applicant will need to take live photos of their ID, as well as a selfie, during the screening process. A mobile phone will need to be available to complete the live photos (even if they're filling out the rest of the application on their computer).
At the end of the application, the applicant will need to enter payment details to pay for their screening application.
How to review and edit details of active screenings
1. Within your Baselane workspace, navigate to the Tenant Screening menu on the left, then click on the property for which you need to edit the screening.
2. Click on "More" in the top right-hand corner of the page
3. Click on "Edit"
4. You can amend the availability date, rent amount and add enhanced reporting if it was not selected previously. Note: The enhanced reporting will be included for any future tenant applications.
5. Click on "Save Changes" at the bottom of the drawer
To view incoming reports and to decide between applicants
Please note: you'll need to verify your identity to view incoming screening reports. For more details on verifying your identity, please see this Help Centre article.
1. Within your Baselane workspace, navigate to the Tenant Screening menu on the left, then click on the property you wish to view.
2. Click on the applicant you want to view the report for
3. You'll be able to review the screening reports as well as print them.
4. Click the arrow button to switch between the various reports (identity verification documents, housing history, credit report, etc.).
5. When you have decided on an applicant, click " Make a decision " within the same screen."
6. You'll be presented with three options:
- Approve
- Conditionally approve
- Decline
*Approve and Conditionally approve allow you to select to stop receiving new applicants. See screenshot below
6.1. If you select "Approve," the approved applicant will be notified by email. You'll also be prompted to set up Rent Collection.
Note: You can choose to set up Rent Collection at a later time; please see this Help Center article for further instructions).
6.2. If you select "Conditionally Approve," you can specify the reason(s) for applying conditions. The applicant will be notified by email. Please follow up with the tenant separately if you require any additional information/documents from them.
Once Coniditinally approved is selected, you can set up rent collection.
Note: You can choose to set up Rent Collection at a later time; please see this Help Center article for further instructions).
6.3. If you select "Decline," the application, you can specify the reason(s) for your decision. The applicant will be notified by email.
To stop receiving applications
You can pause receiving new screening applications for a specific property/unit, if you haven’t yet done it when making decisions about applicants.
1. Within your Baselane workspace, navigate to the Tenant Screening menu on the left, then click on the property for which you want to stop receiving applications.
2. Click on "More" in the top right-hand corner of the page
3. Click on "Turn off applications."
FAQ
Does Baselane support group applications for one property/unit?
Yes. Once you send an invitation link to the main applicant and they start the screening process, there will be a field for them to add co-applicants and guarantors.
Co-applicants will be grouped under one application on Baselane, and you will be able to view each applicant's report individually.
Please note: all the applicants grouped under one application will need to submit their screening before you can decide on their application.
Does Tenant Screening impact the applicant's credit score?
Our credit reporting results in a hard credit check, which can impact the tenants' credit score.
Can I issue refunds to applicants I have declined through Baselane?
We do not currently have that functionality, but we plan to add it in the future. For the time being, we recommend refunding your applicants outside of Baselane.
What Happens if I Deactivate Tenant Screening but an Applicant Uses an Old Screening Link? Will They Be Charged?
No, they won't be able to complete the screening. Upon clicking on the link, they will see a message saying the property is no longer available:
If an applicant has already started the screening process when you turn off applications, they won’t be able to complete the application and won’t be presented with the payment screen.
Can my collaborators set up tenant screening?
Yes, collaborators can set up tenant screening, invite applicants to complete it, and make decisions about applicants. However, the workspace owner must complete identity verification before they or their collaborators can access incoming screening reports.
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