Credit check

[Pumpkin King]

Hi guys,
Just a really bread and better question.

How do you guys do the credit check for your tenants?

Or should I sak which company would you guys recommand?

Cheers

PK

[Glenn]

If you join your local PIA then you can get them done through Baycorp on line at home for $5 a pop.
To find your local or in fact any PIA then go to WWW.NZPIF.org.nz
A significant number of non Nelson residents are members of Nelson PIA that you can get access through. You can find it at [email protected]
Spot you on the net

[BusyLizzy]

I would ALWAYS do a credit check (along with reference checks). I tend to do my through TINZ which incorporates a tenant check in their database (for TT claims, etc) and a BayCorp credit check.

There have been times where I have 'liked' a tenant only to discover they had a long credit history of debts, defaults and judgements.

Having said that, you need to advise your prospective tenant that you will undertake the checks. I have a paragraphs stating that I will do this on my tenant application form.

You also need to be aware of the fact that a tenant may be using alternative names. And I have found that sometimes it will take 2-3 goes before finding them in Baycorp.

And finally, use common sense when looking at the credit history. Were the bad debts recent or 4 years ago? If they are old debts, maybe they went through a rough patch and they now have things under control. Are there bad debts that have since been paid off - or are they defaults? Ask the tenant before doing the check to see if you are likely to find any problems... (I think I learned this from Glenn!). Better that they own up to it in the beginning rather than deny it, and you find a list as long as your arm!

[whitt]

You also need to be aware of the fact that a tenant may be using alternative names. And I have found that sometimes it will take 2-3 goes before finding them in Baycorp.

Some property managers photocopy there licence to minimise this risk.

Infact on the pre - tenancy form I made I included a spot for sighting of ID. http://www.propertytalk.com/componen...d,8/Itemid,89/

[Glenn]

You also need to be aware of the fact that a tenant may be using alternative names. And I have found that sometimes it will take 2-3 goes before finding them in Baycorp.

One of the best things to check on multiple names is take the vehicle rego number then check this on the Baycorp site.
Not withstanding this I just had a tenant through the tribunal where he was using two names. He gave me the good one and it had been checked several times and looked great. When I checked (in hind sight) his other name it was all bad. So I got caught real bad big time. The biggest I have ever been caught.
The trouble with AKA's is the tenant will often say they have had the licence taken off them by the police. Nothing like a photo of the crim to help you later.

[Keys]

The trouble with AKA's is the tenant will often say they have had the licence taken off them by the police. Nothing like a photo of the crim to help you later.

It's my policy to take a photo of prospective tenants and their licences. A 7 megapix camera works wonders here. If they have no licence then they don't get any further with their application. I also do Baycorp checks on everyone who I intend to offer the tenancy to. I check that their car is reg and WOF. If they can't keep it up to spec then they may not be able to pay my rent. ALso I register a "monitor" with Baycorp on any activity with reference to this tenant. This monitor will e-mail me any credit activity the tenant carries out. It also informes me of changes of address's following the tenants departure. I advise the tenant of this before they sign the application form I have and I therefore get their permission to do so. This written permission is important to cover myself with the Privacy Act. The tenancy agreement has a section which allows me to charge for any disbursements I make to recover any moneys owed to me as a result of a TT order. I manage my own properties and don't care if the property stays vacant. I've had one bad experience, that's enough.

Keys

[Pumpkin King]

Thanks guys,
all very useful information

[payjisan]

A 7 megapix camera works wonders here.

7 megapixels eh... You could also check to see if they have clean pores with that type of resolution.

[Perry]

7 megapixels eh... You could also check to see if they have clean pores with that type of resolution.

Snorts. You should include a preface warning with such posts.

My keyboard doesn't seem to work as well when sprayed
with rum and coke. Out of my nostrils! Strange, that.

[tallica1]

It's my policy to take a photo of prospective tenants and their licences. A 7 megapix camera works wonders here. If they have no licence then they don't get any further with their application. I also do Baycorp checks on everyone who I intend to offer the tenancy to. I check that their car is reg and WOF. If they can't keep it up to spec then they may not be able to pay my rent. ALso I register a "monitor" with Baycorp on any activity with reference to this tenant. This monitor will e-mail me any credit activity the tenant carries out. It also informes me of changes of address's following the tenants departure. I advise the tenant of this before they sign the application form I have and I therefore get their permission to do so. This written permission is important to cover myself with the Privacy Act. The tenancy agreement has a section which allows me to charge for any disbursements I make to recover any moneys owed to me as a result of a TT order. I manage my own properties and don't care if the property stays vacant. I've had one bad experience, that's enough.

Keys

If you do checks through TINZ, as part of the checking process you have to have the tenants Drivers licence number, this also helps you to identify your tenant properly. TINZ also uses a similar system to Baycorp's monitor facility, where you can get address updates on a specific tenant using the A-Alert option. You can also lodge tenant references (good or bad) on each tenant with TINZ and lodge 10 Day Notices which you can not do with Baycorp. TINZ currently has about 30,000 tenants on it's database. New Zealand's largest privately owned tenant database. Using TINZ you have the abilty of checking Baycorps database at a lower cost per credit check than Baycorp themselves charge when registered on the 'High Volume User' level.

https://www.tinz.net.nz

[Traff]

Also tenantlink does credit checking i found these were more thorough than TINZ.

Shazza

[tallica1]

Also tenantlink does credit checking i found these were more thorough than TINZ.

Shazza

How can they be? The information on TINZ's database comes from property managers and landlords themselves along with Chase Investigative Agencies (C.I.A.), specialists in tenancy debt recovery who lodge the debts online that get put to them to recover. So the information is kept up to date.

Searches through the TINZ database will show up if any General references, Tenancy Tribunal decisions(T.T Orders), 10-day notices have been issued by landlords and property managers, along with any arrangements to pay, enforcements and related matters that may have been loaded on a specific tenant. Tenant Reference rates a tenant on 6 specific topics - pays rent on time, kept dwelling tidy, kept grounds tidy, considerate of neighbours, left dwelling tidy and how the tenant left the grounds tidy at the end of the tenancy.

And then with TINZ you also have the option of doing a simultanous Baycorp Check. All checking facilities are 24/7. Basically you can check two major databases simultanously at once.

[BusyLizzy]

I can't comment on which of TINZ or TenantLink do the better credit checking (I assume they both access Baycorp?) - but as far as the other references go, surely that is purely a function of how many TT's, references, etc have been lodged by the landlords in the first place.

And this presumably comes back to which has the bigger membership... which is something that I don't actually know.

NB. I am assuming TINZ don't receive TT's, etc directly from Tenancy Services and that these can only be lodged by Landlords.. I'm happy to be corrected if that is not the case.

Personally, I use TINZ - but have been frustrated at times when no matches are found. Yet when I scouted around on BayCorp directly, a match was found. In a specific case, a match was eventually found by removing the date of birth before doing the search - and yet the same DOB appeared in the Credit reference printout!

I suspect this is more a problem at Baycorp's end, but at $24 (?) a pop on TINZ, I can't afford to keep digging until a match is made.

[tallica1]

I can't comment on which of TINZ or TenantLink do the better credit checking (I assume they both access Baycorp?) - but as far as the other references go, surely that is purely a function of how many TT's, references, etc have been lodged by the landlords in the first place.

And this presumably comes back to which has the bigger membership... which is something that I don't actually know.

NB. I am assuming TINZ don't receive TT's, etc directly from Tenancy Services and that these can only be lodged by Landlords.. I'm happy to be corrected if that is not the case.

Personally, I use TINZ - but have been frustrated at times when no matches are found. Yet when I scouted around on BayCorp directly, a match was found. In a specific case, a match was eventually found by removing the date of birth before doing the search - and yet the same DOB appeared in the Credit reference printout!

I suspect this is more a problem at Baycorp's end, but at $24 (?) a pop on TINZ, I can't afford to keep digging until a match is made.

Baycorp system is inconsistent with their data as they have debts listed against debtors with and without date of birth and they are not prepared to marry them up for the reason creditors, (and you include landlords in that group), don't bother identifying their debtors/tenants fully. Whereas TINZ and CIA (CHASE Investigations) are specialists in tenancy and they try to teach landlords how to be better at their game through their workshops at REINZ and NZPIF (property Ivestor Assns.) and hence the system requires a date of birth (e.g. how many Dave Smiths are out there but a DOB would ID the specific debtor).

Sure the TINZ is reliant on their members and CIA to upload TT orders, 10 day notices and ratings but if you, as a landlord don't use it then you have to ask why does the average landlord and their associations keep moaning they need a bad tenant register so they don't get caught with a bad tenant. There are more than 31000 tenants listed on TINZ alone and it is oldest system since it was formed in 1998.

As for the costs - there are various levels - if you want to use the "high volume membership" level, doing Baycorp checks via TINZ is cheaper per check than going direct to Baycorp and this particular level of fees are only $160 + GST for a years membership, plus REINZ and NZPIF (Property Investor Assn's) get a 20% discount off their membership fee, but if you don't use it much you aren't investing in the system as much as these people so you don't get the benefit of the lesser fees of the high volume membership.

Besides who is going to pay for the new programming that TINZ has got to invest in to make 24/7 access to the eventual government list of orders which a lot of people think is going to be wonderful. They keep on putting the activation date back on that and they advise the database will not be back dated (so it will be more or less empty at the start) and they will not be updating it to say debts are paid nor is it their function to list 10 Day Notices or rate tenants like the TINZ system. They will also, from what I've heard, be deleting all their T.T Orders after 3 years, so any T.T Order that's older than 3 years will not be on the Govt. list. The TINZ system does not have a time limit on it T.T Orders that are lodged on it's database but T.T Orders have a statutory life of 6 years.

Sorry for the long rant but I believe it's important to try and make things clear.

[BusyLizzy]

Don't get me wrong - I wasn't knocking TINZ. I subscribe, and always use it for reference checks. I also lodged my (one and only!) TT, plus a couple of 10 days. I guess my point was that it's only as good as other landlords who can bother using it to lodge details of their problem tenants.

It will be great with your database hooks up with the government's list of orders.