Is rental history important?

[weg]

Either the rental history, the bond reciept or bank statements can give you a good picture of whether people do and/or have the ability to pay.

If you can't get hold of one of them then you take a gamble imo.

I'd rather wait and lose a week or 2 of rent than constantly chase rent.

 

[Ed Barton]

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice and interesting opinion. I wish I can have someone like eXc to be my tenant! I did give the ones without rental history a go, but it turned out to be a mistake with my last (first) tenant. He passed all the other reference checks and I met him personally who looked like a gentleman. But he was then behind and behind in rents, only paid when we issued letter after letter.

The only applicant who has moderately acceptable rental history has pulled out because they decided to buy a house. Well, I'm back to square one. Should I stick to anyone with rental history or not? Certainly, I will think about using the 3-month trial lease.

some here like the 3 month trial lease. from a tenants pov the only reason you would take a 3 month lease is that you couldn't get a 6 or 12 month least. tenants willing to take a 3 month lease are probably not the best quality.