Property Management Quick Tip – The Benefits of Using Tenancy Databases

Tenancy databases are online databases used by property management professionals to check tenant details as part of a screening process for tenant applications.

Aside from the benefits of using databases as screening tools to assess the financial risk of a given tenant, tenancy databases also have the added benefit of listing tenants who have not paid rent, water invoices or other charges as stipulated by tribunal orders or the agency.

The main benefit to the landlord for listing a defaulting tenant (aside from warning other real estate professionals about the risk of the tenant) is that the debt remains on the database until it is paid.

In our agency we’ve had tenants approach us several years later to arrange a way to pay the debt back so that that the debt is recorded as paid on the database – makes it easier for a tenant to then rent again.

The best way to recoup an arrears debt is off course through landlords insurance, however recording bad debt on a tenancy database also gives the landlord some chance of recouping the debt even several years later when the tenant needs to rent again but finds that they are often getting rejected.