Letting your apartment: how to vet a tenant properly

The most expensive mistake is made before the contract

When letting a property, people usually focus on the rent. In reality the outcome is decided by who moves into your apartment.

Do the maths yourself. Two unpaid months, a trip to court, cleaning and repairs after they move out — and a whole year of rental income is gone. For homes, the logic of the law is to protect the tenant, not the owner. Getting rid of a bad tenant is neither quick nor cheap.

That is why the only place where you can genuinely manage this risk is before the signature.

Liking someone is not a criterion

The most common mistake is to choose the candidate who was the most pleasant. A pleasant person can be an excellent tenant. But liking someone is not information — it is a first impression, and experienced problem tenants are particularly good at making one.

Check the facts, and do it the same way with everyone. An identical check is also the simplest way to be fair: you make the decision on the same questions, not on how someone looks or feels.

What I check with every candidate

1. Identity. Valid photo identification, and the name that will go into the contract. If they do not want to show it, the conversation is over.
2. How stable the income is. Where they work, for how long, whether they are on probation. A salary certificate or a bank statement. If they run a business, I check the commercial register to see whether the company is genuinely trading.
3. Payment defaults. With the candidate's consent I check the default registers. One small old debt is not automatically an obstacle — a pattern is.
4. Previous renting history. Where they lived before and why they are moving. If there is a previous landlord, I ask permission to speak to them. That one call gives more information than the whole viewing.
5. Who is actually moving in. How many people, who they are, for how long. “Me and a friend” means two names in the contract.
6. Pets, smoking, working from home. Everything that turns into a dispute later has to be asked beforehand and written down.

My rule of thumb on income: if the rent and the utilities take more than a third of net income, every surprise — a broken car, a change of job, a baby — becomes a missed payment straight away.

The signs that make me say no

• Wants to move in today and do the contract later.
• Offers several months in cash up front to get past the questions.
• Refuses to show identification or to allow a background check.
• The story changes: yesterday the job was one thing, today another.
• Haggles the deposit down while not arguing about the rent.
• Will not say who else is moving in.
• Pushes for haste and creates the feeling that you have to decide right now.

None of these proves anything. But two at once is usually reason enough to move on. An empty month is cheaper than the wrong tenant.

A deposit that actually protects you

The law allows a deposit of up to three months' rent in a residential lease, and it can be paid in instalments. A smaller deposit means smaller protection — it is simple arithmetic.

Write into the contract how large the deposit is, how it is held and on what conditions it is returned. Vague wording means that at the end you argue about the wording instead of about the condition of the apartment.

The contract and the report: two pieces of paper that decide everything

A verbal agreement protects neither side. A written contract has to include at least:

• The term and the termination procedure. Ending an open-ended residential lease carries a long notice period, generally three months — take that into account when you draw the contract up.
• The rent, the utilities and the payment date, and what happens if payment is late.
• The deposit terms.
• Who is responsible for repairs and appliances, and up to what sum.
• The visiting arrangements and the ban on subletting.

And then the most underrated document of all: the handover report. Meter readings, the number of keys, a list of the furniture and appliances, and photos of every room on the day of handover. That piece of paper is what decides, a year later, whose scratch that is. Without it the dispute is between your memory and theirs, and nobody wins that one.

Two things that tend to be forgotten

Insurance: your home insurance covers the building and your own property, not the tenant's. Advise the tenant to insure their belongings themselves and put it in the contract.

Tax: rental income has to be declared. A certain share of residential rent can be deducted as costs — ask the Tax and Customs Board for the exact rules and rate, because this is the one place where I cannot help you with an opinion.

In short

A good tenant is worth more than a good rent. Ten euros a month extra never covers one empty month or one trip to court.

If you do not want to take calls in the evenings and sift through candidates yourself, I will do that work for you — and if someone fails the check, I will tell you why. The final choice is always yours.