Landlord Reference Check Template: 10 Questions and What to Listen For

You have an application in front of you, a name on the line for a previous landlord, and you are on Google looking for a landlord reference check template. Most of what ranks is the wrong kind of template. TurboTenant, Baselane, and Legal Templates are built around the reference letter your outgoing tenant might hand to their next landlord. That is outbound paperwork. You need inbound verification: a script for the call you place to someone else’s prior tenant.

If you would rather skip the call entirely, MakeCalls runs the reference call for you and sends back a transcript. $15 per check, first one free. Otherwise, read on.

The questions below are that script. Ten of them, grouped so you can run a real call in ten minutes if the person on the other end is willing to talk. What matters as much as the list is who you call and how you listen. Whether you are speaking to the actual prior landlord, not a friend with a coached story. Whether you treat vague answers as unfinished answers. Get those wrong and the best question list in the world will not save you. A clean background check does not replace this call. It tells you what was filed, not what happened.

The landlord reference check template

Use these in order. Introduce yourself, say you are screening an applicant who listed them as a prior landlord, and ask permission to take notes. Then work through the groups.

Confirm the tenancy is real

1. “Can you confirm [tenant name] rented from you at [address]?”

This establishes you are speaking to someone who knows the tenancy, not a coached friend reading from a script.

Good answer: Immediate confirmation of name and address, including unit if applicable.

Red flag: Hesitation, “I think so,” or confusion about which property you mean.

2. “What were the move-in and move-out dates?”

Dates cross-check the application. A real landlord usually has these from a lease or accounting records.

Good answer: Specific months or exact dates that match what the applicant wrote.

Red flag: “I’m not sure,” or dates that are months off the application with no explanation.

3. “What was the monthly rent?”

Rent is a fraud screen as much as a fact check. The prior landlord charged it every month.

Good answer: A specific dollar amount, sometimes with a note that it increased once.

Red flag: Long pause, “I’d have to look that up,” or a number that does not match market rates or the applicant’s stated rent.

Payment history

4. “Did they pay rent on time?”

Payment patterns at the last address are one of the best predictors of how someone will pay you.

Good answer: “Yes, consistently” or “Once or twice late in [month], always caught up.”

Red flag: “Mostly,” “generally,” or any answer that avoids a clear yes or no until you probe.

5. “Were there any bounced payments, late notices, or eviction proceedings?”

You are asking for escalations, not minor friction. MySmartMove groups payment history and eviction history in the same screening bucket for a reason.

Good answer: Clear “no” without hedging.

Red flag: Any “yes,” a subject change before answering, or “we worked it out” with no detail when you ask what that meant.

Property and behavior

6. “What condition was the unit in at move-out, and was any of the deposit withheld?”

Damage disputes often never become court records. The deposit outcome is the landlord’s honest summary.

Good answer: “Normal wear,” full deposit returned, or a specific minor deduction with a plain explanation.

Red flag: “We had some issues,” most of the deposit kept with vague reasons, or a long pause before answering either part.

7. “Were there any complaints from neighbors about noise, guests, or conduct?”

Neighbor problems at the last address predict the same issues in your property.

Good answer: “None that I recall” or one minor incident that was resolved.

Red flag: Multiple complaints, ongoing noise issues, or reluctance to answer until you repeat the question.

8. “Were there any lease violations like unauthorized pets, occupants, or alterations?”

Lease compliance at the last address predicts how they will treat your lease.

Good answer: “No violations” or one documented notice that was cured.

Red flag: “A few notices,” undisclosed occupants or pets, or alterations they never approved.

The close

9. “Would you rent to them again?”

This is the highest-signal question on the list. Avail’s tenant screening guide treats it as the capstone for a reason. Ask it neutrally and stop talking.

Good answer: Clear “yes” or “absolutely” without a long qualification.

Red flag: Pause, “it depends,” “they weren’t the worst,” or anything that is not a straight yes.

10. “Is there anything else I should know that I haven’t asked?”

The open close is where cautious landlords put the thing they did not want to lead with. Thirty seconds here can outweigh the rest of the call.

Good answer: Additional positive detail, or a clean “no, I think that covers it.”

Red flag: A long pause, a subject change, or “I probably shouldn’t say, but…”

That is the template. It works if you actually use it. Most landlords have a list like this in a folder and never make the call. If that is you, MakeCalls places the call and sends back a transcript. $15, first one free.

How to actually run the call

Call the prior landlord, not only the current one. The current landlord may want a difficult tenant out of their unit. The prior landlord has no active stake in where that person lives next month. We wrote the full case for that in Call the Prior Landlord, Not the Current One. If you only have time for one reference call, make it the one before the current address.

Verify the landlord before you dial the number on the application. This is the single biggest defense against a fake reference. RentPrep and Stessa both say the same thing in different words: look up the property in county assessor or tax records, confirm the owner name, and find your own contact path. If the owner is an LLC, check state corporate records so the person on the phone matches a listed member. Do not treat the phone number the tenant wrote down as verified.

Do not lead the witness. Factual questions first. Save “would you rent to them again” for near the end, ask it once, and let silence sit. The pause after that question often tells you more than the first sentence does. On r/Landlord, Gandlerian described why thin references happen: “Some will give glowing references because they are eager to get rid of a problem tenant. Some will give a poor reference out of spite… And, some won’t answer any questions at all other than confirm that they lived there and are paid on time.” Your job is to push past that minimum when the person on the line will allow it.

Use a passive rent check when something feels off. RentPrep suggests stating a rent figure from the application and asking if it sounds right. A real prior landlord usually corrects a wrong number. A coached reference often agrees to whatever you say.

Take notes or get permission to record. You are building a contemporaneous record for your own decision and in case the tenancy goes sideways later. RentPrep’s guide recommends treating the call like an interview: write down what was said while it is fresh, and follow up on anything that does not match the application.

What the credit report does not tell you

A common objection, especially from landlords who screen carefully on paper: “I pull a credit report and a background check. That tells me everything I need to know.” On r/Landlord, in a thread titled “I think calling applicants’ previous landlords is a waste of time,” the OP put it this way:

“I require 650 credit score, 3x rent and a background free of any troubling records, evictions in the past five years or bankruptcy. It seems like a big waste of time to require and call the references of the other applicants.”

Yes, and. Keep the credit score, the income multiple, and the background check. They are your first filter. They do not catch late rent that never went to collections, lease violations that never became court records, unauthorized pets and occupants, neighbor complaints, deposit disputes settled informally, or how a prior landlord answers when you ask, “would you rent to them again?” Those live in the reference call, not the report.

francis_roy in the same thread saw it differently:

“I find them to be quite useful. Especially [would you rent to them again]. Had a guy spill his guts out to me this morning.”

That is the gap the ten questions above are built to fill. Not instead of the report, alongside it. For the longer case on what screening databases miss, see What Your Background Check Misses. The prior landlord tells you what actually happened in the unit.

Common mistakes

Calling the number on the application without checking property records. Friends pose as landlords. Paid reference services exist. The number may forward to someone coached. Two minutes on the county assessor site eliminates a large share of that risk.

Accepting “they were fine” as an answer. That is not payment history, deposit history, or a would-rent-again. When an answer stays vague, ask one direct follow-up: “Can you give me a specific example?” A real prior landlord with nothing to hide usually clarifies.

Only calling the current landlord. You may still call them, but weight the prior landlord more heavily. The incentive problem is structural, not personal. See Call the Prior Landlord, Not the Current One.

Treating the reference as a formality after you have already decided. Many small landlords run the report, like the applicant, and then call the reference looking for confirmation. Run the call before you tell anyone they are approved.

Skipping the call because you have a template. The PDF in your downloads folder does not screen anyone. The conversation does.

The honest counterargument

A checklist does not guarantee a clean answer. A prior landlord can give you a thin, legally cautious reference that tells you almost nothing. A coached fake can still pass ten factual questions if you never verified ownership. A real landlord can lie to unload a problem tenant, as landlords on r/Landlord have described when a “great” reference was followed by a costly tenancy.

The template is the floor, not the ceiling. What separates landlords who get burned from landlords who do not is usually not a better list. It is the discipline to call the right person, ask the awkward questions, probe “mostly” until it becomes specific, and hear silence after “would you rent to them again” as data.

MakeCalls places the reference call, probes vague answers, and sends back a transcript. $15 per reference, first one free.