A rent application form is downstream of a decision most landlords make in the wrong order. The form collects; the criteria decide; and writing the form first tends to produce criteria reverse-engineered from whatever the form happened to ask. This page is about writing the criteria first, which takes twenty minutes and makes every later application quicker.
Write the threshold as a number
Income relative to rent expressed as a multiple, a minimum tenancy length at the current address or a stated alternative, and what you do about a missing landlord reference. Numbers can be applied identically; judgements cannot. A criterion that reads sufficient income is not a criterion, it is a place where two applicants will be treated differently and nobody will be able to say why.
Decide the exceptions in advance too
A first-time renter, a self-employed applicant whose income is lumpy, a student with a guarantor, someone relocating without a local reference. Each is common, and deciding what you accept instead of the standard evidence before you meet one is what stops the exception being made for the applicant you liked. Write the alternatives down beside the criteria.
Then build the form to serve them
Every field should exist because a criterion needs it. Run the test both ways: is there a field no criterion uses, and is there a criterion with no field. The first is data collected for nothing and the second is a judgement you cannot evidence. A form built this way is short, which is also why it gets completed.
Keep the pair together
Criteria and form in one place, dated, with the version you were using when each batch of applications was decided. That is what turns a stack of forms into a record of a process. It also makes the annual review trivial, because the question is simply whether the thresholds still match the market you are letting in.
Questions people ask about rent application form
What income multiple is standard?
There is no universal figure and several places now regulate how income requirements may be applied. Pick one you can justify and apply it to everyone, and check the local rule before you set it.
Can I require a guarantor from some applicants only?
Only on a written criterion applied consistently, such as income below the threshold. Requiring one selectively by impression is exactly the inconsistency that causes complaints.
Do I have to publish my criteria?
Some jurisdictions now require disclosure of screening criteria. Publishing them is also a practical filter, because applicants who cannot meet them stop applying.