There are many kinds of bad tenants, including those who default on rental payment, overstay, do not look after the properties, do not respect the neighbours and use the property for illegal businesses and so on.
Prevention is always better than cure, so identifying a potential 'rogue' tenant is important for landlords to prevent falling into a rental nightmare. However, there are still times when even with levels of filtering done, you would still end up with ‘rogue’ tenants.
Despite a good profile and good payment track records, if the tenant only pays rent in cash, it is a red flag as the job he is doing might be illegal.
If someone decided too fast without any hesitation right after a brief viewing of the premise, or if the person wants to move in almost immediately, he could have issues with his previous tenancy.
Hence, inquiry and investigation are important in filtering tenants. For a corporate lease, ask for all relevant documents including the company’s information in the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM).
Homework needs to be done to make sure that the company is really operating and has the ability to pay the rent.
When possible, try to search the potential tenant on the Internet or in social media to get to know more about the person. While we cannot judge a book based on its cover, at least it gives us an indication of what the person is like.
Apart from this, landlord can ask the tenant to present his CTOS credit report in exchange for a rental deduction. This can lead to a win-win situation, as the landlord gets an assurance on the credibility of the tenant, while the tenant can get cheaper rent.
