Police Intimation
Why Police Verification of tenants is important and how should it be done?
Renting out a property is a profitable business for many of us as most of the Owners purchase the property for Investment purposes only. In the current scenario where there is a high demand for rental homes due to the huge number of people migrating to bigger cities. The benefits of your investment and to reap rich rewards depends solely on the type of tenant being chosen for rental purposes. Ensuring that the tenant being selected by you for your property is trustworthy is an essential component of the safeguarding process and must be properly followed for your own security. In case you are renting out your property without completing the safeguarding process then you may get into trouble soon. It’s for this reason only that Police Verification of your tenants is an important part of the renting cycle.
The law makes it compulsory for landlords to fulfill police verification of their tenants. Under Section-188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which concerns the violation of an order rightfully declared by a public servant, a convict may be “punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one month or a monetary penalty of Rs 200”.
Since the monetary penalty is insignificant, proper attention is not taken usually to follow the laws. By the look of it, the tenant seems fine to the landlord and the difficulty to follow the method could well step aside. Does a landlord think about what harm could the tenant cause him or the system? Even if everything is fine, a landlord could still be accused or charged.
It is often seen that the landlord ignores the importance of tenant verification and rents out their property without performing legal due diligence. This is not only risky for the property but at the same time well-being of the landlord. If your tenant is involved in any criminal act, you can be held responsible for this negligence.
To make sure that you are renting out your property to an honest tenant, it is necessary to follow these simple steps:
Police Verification:
You can get the Police Verification Form online for tenant verification. Every landlord should download this form and give it to the tenants for verification before handing over the house or flat keys. The tenant should fill in his original name with the father's name, permanent address, and other essential information in the given form. It verifies a tenant and makes it easy for the landlord to involve the police in case of a dispute.
Background Check:
A background check is the first and most important step in tenant verification. If your tenant has a history of averting rent or destroying rented property, in this situation, you may be able to find out through a background check.
Contact Your Tenant’s Previous Landlord:
If the tenant has lived in the same locality/city, then you can check with his previous landlords. You can also ask for the previous employer’s contact number and address. You can ask all relevant questions to make sure the person is reliable for you to rent out your property.
Ask for the personal references:
The landlord can also ask for 1-2 personal references whom the landlord can call and ask about the person and verify his details. Family and friends are good sources to verify the tenant. If the person has no unlawful records he won’t hesitate to share a few references but it is not always necessary that you will get all the information as some tenants may not be comfortable sharing their parent’s contact numbers. In this situation, it is better to ask for friends’ numbers or colleague’s details just to keep them as a record.
How does police Verification help?
Police verification can help in below-mentioned ways:
Unlawful practices on-premises:
It is often seen that college students, bachelors, and even young working professionals live alone or want privacy. They enjoy parties, consume drugs, drinking on their premises. Some live with partners. When police verification is completed, tenants do not resort to such activities on the premises for fear of getting arrested.
It helps in tracking crime:
It is very easy to track the absconding culprit and those who committed a heinous crime in the rented apartment/flat. Once the tenant submitted his identity proof, the fear of a police trial ensures that there are very few chances of committing a crime.
It helps in tracking terror activities:
Many terrorists rent places to stay in the city from where they carry out plans of attacks in the city. Police verification can easily find out these monsters with fake identities.
It helps in tracking foreigners' identification:
Many foreigners overstay after the expiry of the contracts and disappear into the smaller cities. With the help of police verification, these unauthorized citizens can easily find out in case they rent out a place to stay.
It helps a landlord if he lives abroad or out of town:
It is often seen that landlords rent out the property and stay out of the town or country. If he has done the police verification, he is relieved that his property is let out to a decent person with a good background.
It creates fear of the law for the tenants:
After police verification, tenants always fear police action and being hauled up and put behind bars. If a tenant has submitted his official details, he fears that police can reach the workplace he will lose his job and he will not get another place to stay.
It helps in better maintenance and safety of the premises:
Tenants take good care of the rented property and pay rent on time when there is a police verification completed. He does not mess around with the structure and does not cause any damage to it. He is aware that his documentation lies with the police and his record gets blackened if the landlord registers any complaints with the police.
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