Rental application

Ask every applicant the same things, in the same order

Three applications arrive for one flat. One is a two-page letter about how much they love the neighbourhood, one is a forwarded CV, and one is a text message. Deciding fairly between them means holding three different documents in your head and hoping you did not miss anything.

A form makes that somebody else's problem. Income is in the same place on every reply, so you can sort by it. The current landlord is asked of everybody or nobody. Pets are a tick rather than something you find out on move-in day.

It is also the part of tenant selection most likely to be looked at later. Identical questions asked of every applicant, with a date and a signature against them, is a better record than a memory of three phone calls.

Income and employment, asked so you can actually check them

Gross monthly income on its own is a number somebody typed. What makes it usable is the contact who confirms it, which is why that is a separate question rather than a line inside the employment box.

The other-income field exists because the common alternative — a single salary box — quietly rejects self-employed applicants, people on benefits and anybody supported by family, none of whom are worse tenants for it. Ask, then decide.

Rental history is the reference that predicts the tenancy

An employer confirms somebody can pay. A previous landlord tells you whether they did, whether the property came back in one piece, and whether the neighbours were happy. It is the more useful call and it is the one most often skipped.

The previous-address question only matters for a short current tenancy — somebody who has been where they are for six years does not need it, and somebody who has moved three times in eighteen months is exactly who it is for.

Why this template does not ask for a social security number

Most paper rental applications do, so its absence is a deliberate choice rather than an oversight.

The number exists for one purpose: a credit check run by a screening service. That service will ask the applicant for it directly, through its own secure process. Collecting it here means it lives in a form response, travels in an email notification, and sits in an inbox — carrying real risk to the applicant for no benefit to the check.

So the form collects permission and stops. If you use a screening provider, send the applicant its link after you have shortlisted; if you do not, you were never going to run the check anyway.

The details that cause arguments later

Pets, vehicles, smoking and exactly who is moving in are the four things that most often turn out to have been assumed rather than agreed. Each is one line here and a difficult conversation if it comes up after the keys have changed hands.

The occupants question asks for ages as well as names, because that is what tells you whether the property is being let within its permitted occupancy.

What you get back

Every application in one list you can sort by income or move-in date, search for a name, or download as a spreadsheet. Open one and read it on its own when you are ready to shortlist.

The printable version is free and needs no address, so if you would rather hand a clipboard to somebody at a viewing, take that one instead.