Rental History Verification of the Past Tenants

When a tenant vacates our property and applies to lease with another property management company, we may receive a request from that company to verify the tenant’s rental history.

This is a legally sensitive process. Proceed with caution.


To complete this, we need to do two things:

  • First, we must have permission from the past residents to release information about their rental history. Email them, notify them that we received a request for rental verification, and ask them if we have their approval to release information about their rental history. We must have a written confirmation from each resident. Use the template below:

Recipients: Past Residents

Subject: Rental Verification Request

Hi {{RESIDENT NAMES}},

We got a rental verification request from a landlord regarding your previous lease with us {{ENTER LEASE DATES}} at {{PROPERTY ADDRESS}}.

Can you just reply to let us know if it’s okay to share your rental history with them? A quick “yes, you can share it” or “no, please don’t” is perfect. We will not share details without your permission.

Thanks!


  • If the past residents do not give permission to release information, then notify the agent/landlord that is requesting the information. Tell them the residents declined to give permission to release information, and we unfortunately cannot help.
  • If the past residents do give permission to release information about their rental history with us, then proceed to answer the agent's questions.
    1. We can only answer yes/no or factual questions. (EX: How many late payments did they have? Did they give property notice to vacate? Any lease violations? How many?)
    2. Answer those to the best of your ability, but be cautious to only give factual or yes/no answers.
    3. Refer to the tenant's Appfolio and ledger to gather information.
    4. You must politely decline to answer questions that are non-factual. For example, if an agent asks:
      1. Overall, were they a good tenant?
      2. This is not a factual question; this requires a subjective assessment, so we should not answer it. Just direct them to the factual information.

Again, this is legally sensitive. If you are not sure about whether you should release certain information, please contact the PM for guidance. They'll be happy to help, as this will prevent any potential legal issues.


Further Insights:

The company has sent us an online form that requires completion. Below is a Loom video demonstrating how to fill out the rental verification form.
To complete the form, we can find the required information on the tenant page, including the lease start and end dates, rent amount, any NSF fees from the tenant ledger, and pet details at the bottom of the page. Additionally, any recorded violations will be listed under the email section.

Once we complete the form, it will be automatically submitted to the property management company.
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