Screening is usually described as a check on whether someone can pay. That part is straightforward and, in our experience, almost never the reason a tenancy goes wrong. Tenants who can afford the rent still leave in month four, still sublet the second bedroom, still run a home business that triples the footfall in a residential lobby. Those outcomes are visible at the enquiry stage if you ask the right questions.
Verify the basics properly, then move on
Identity documents, employment confirmation, and three to six months of bank statements showing the rent as a comfortable fraction of inflow. Verify the employer directly rather than accepting a letter — a two-minute call to a listed switchboard resolves most doubts. Do this well, then stop, because the remaining time is better spent elsewhere.
The questions that actually predict
- Why are you moving? A relocation, a growing family, or a shorter commute are durable reasons. A dispute with a previous landlord is worth understanding in detail, from both sides if possible.
- How long do you expect to be here? Answers shorter than the lease are honest and useful. Plan around them rather than pretending they were not said.
- Who will actually live here? Asked plainly, at the start, and written into the agreement. Nearly every subletting dispute we have handled began with a vague answer nobody followed up.
- What do you need from the flat that it does not currently have? This surfaces expectations about fit-out, appliances, and parking before they become grievances.
The previous landlord reference
Worth more than any document, and consistently skipped. We ask two questions: did they pay on time, and would you rent to them again. Hesitation on the second question tells you everything the first one did not.
Fit with the building
A perfectly good tenant in the wrong building generates complaints for two years. A dog in a society whose bye-laws prohibit pets, a night-shift schedule in a building with a strict lobby closure, a work-from-home consultancy expecting client visitors in a residential tower — these are not character judgements, they are compatibility questions. Ask them before the deposit is taken, not after.
Then document it
Registered agreement, police intimation where applicable, a dated inventory with photographs of every room and appliance, and meter readings at handover signed by both parties. The screening prevents the bad tenancy; the documentation prevents the bad exit.