The Necessity of Police Verification of Tenants

Renting out a real estate property to a tenant sounds like a profitable choice for many of us, right? Well, the increasing demand for rental homes from students and other migrant populations in the cities makes it a lucrative offer for homeowners. However, you as a landlord must always be careful while choosing tenants.

As all the benefits of your real estate investment entirely depend on the type of tenant you have chosen for your property; therefore it's essential to choose them wisely. And to help you with this, police verification of tenants will surely prove to be useful.

If you are ready to welcome a tenant to your property but still don't know much about tenant police verification, then we've got you covered. In this article, you will learn everything about police verification of tenants along with its necessity in today's real estate market. 

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Overview of tenant police verification

As a landlord, you are responsible for finding out the personal as well as professional details of a tenant. After all, the whole point of renting out your property is to generate income without any issues. So, it becomes vital for you to gauge the payment capacity of the tenant while ensuring that the tenant will not cause any sort of legal or general nuisance. This is basically known as a background check, which you as a landlord do for your own safety. 

A Tenant Police Verification is another part of this process. As the name indicates, aside from screening your prospective tenant, you have to involve the police in the process of Tenant Police Verification. It is important to note that this is not optional, as police verification of tenants has now been made mandatory by city authorities in all major districts of India. Technically, there isn't any law that states that the landlord is obliged to do so. However, a provision in the IPC (Indian Penal Code) could lead to the landlord getting responsible for an offence committed by the tenant.

Now, when it comes to getting a police verification of tenants done, you can easily get it done by visiting the police station in your locality. After visiting there, you just have to fill up the tenant verification form. Alternatively, you can log on to the official website of the police station and request a Tenant Police Verification. However, in some cities, landlords can complete the police verification of tenants by using mobile applications. You will be surprised to know that the Delhi Police has launched an application named Suraksha to do away with hassle and paperwork while carrying out Tenant Police Verification. 

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Why is police verification of the tenant necessary?

Police Verification of Tenant is helpful in the ways stated below:

1. Tenants do not resort to unlawful practices on-premises

The most important advantage of police verification of tenants is that it prevents the tenants from involving in unlawful practices on-premises. It is often seen that bachelors, college students, and even working professionals live alone in a rented house just because they need privacy. As a result, they enjoy parties, consume alcohol or drugs on the premises. So, when Tenant Police Verification is done, tenants do not involve in such activities due to the fear of getting arrested. 

2. Helps in tracking terrorist activities

As the country is always in danger from terrorists, police verification of tenants helps monitor terrorist activities. Many terrorists rent places or properties to stay in the city from where they can easily carry out plans of attacks in the city. So, after undertaking Tenant Police Verification, you can easily identify such people living with fake identities. 

3. Helps in tracking crime

The police verification of the tenant makes it easy to track the crime. In other words, we can say that Tenant Police Verification makes it convenient to track the absconding culprit and those who partake in horrible crime in a rented flat or apartment. Once the tenants submit their identity proof to the police, the fear of police trial makes sure that there are fewer chances of committing a crime. 

4. Assists in tracking foreigners identification

Another benefit that police verification of tenants brings to the table is that it helps track foreigners' identification. Many foreigners overstay after the expiry of the contracts and disappear into smaller cities. With the assistance of Tenant Police Verification, such unauthorised citizens can be easily found out if they rent out a place to stay.

5. Helps landlords if they live out of town or abroad

It is often seen that landlords rent out their real estate properties and stay out of the town or in another country abroad. If such landlords get Tenant Police Verification done, they can be relieved that their property is in safe hands and is let out to a decent person with a good background. 

6. Helps in better maintenance of the premises

When police verification of tenant is completed, tenants take good care of the rented real estate property and pay rent on time. Also, the tenant does not mess around with the structure and does not cause any damage to the property. This is because the tenants are aware that their documentation lies with the police, and their record gets blackened if the landlord files any complaint against them with the police. 

This was all about how Tenant Police Verification is important! Let’s now look at what will happen if you fail to get it done.

What will happen if you fail to carry out the police verification of the tenant?

Are you worried about what will happen if you fail to carry out Tenant Police Verification? If yes, then we have got an answer for you! 

If such disobedience causes or tends to cause an obstruction, injury, or annoyance then the landlord of the property can be punished with simple imprisonment for a term that may extend to one month or with a fine that may extend to Rs.200 or with both. 

On the other hand, if such disobedience causes or tends to cause risk to human safety or health, the landlord can be punished with imprisonment for a term that might extend to six months or with a penalty that might extend to Rs. 1000, or with both. 

To conclude, we would like to say that the entire prospect of earning income as rentals through your property could be jeopardised in case your property is offered to a tenant whose track record can hardly be ascertained. It would be a big mistake to offer your property for living to such a tenant, and this is where police verification of tenant assumes the necessity.

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