FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS REGARDING NATIONAL TENANT NETWORK

Transcription

1 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS REGARDING NATIONAL TENANT NETWORK 1. Who can use National Tenant Network s ( NTN ) on-line Rental Application and credit reporting system? All Landlord Clients represented by Coldwell Banker can avail themselves of NTN s services in evaluating the credit worthiness of a Prospective Tenant. Additionally, a For Rent By Owner Landlord can similarly agree to allow a Coldwell Banker Tenant Client to use NTN. Lastly, if a problem arises in connection with a Landlord s Listing Agency/Agent being able, or willing, to obtain a credit report on a Coldwell Banker Tenant Client, Coldwell Banker can offer to have said Prospective Tenant utilize NTN under those circumstances as well. 2. Is it appropriate to use NTN for a Prospective Commercial Tenant? No*. Usage of NTN s system would only be applicable to a commercial rental transaction if/when Coldwell Banker s Commercial Landlord Client specifically requests a credit report on an individual Prospective Commercial Tenant (i.e., as opposed to a corporate entity), which is not the common practice. 3. Can a Prospective Tenant utilize NTN s online system when the Tenant is a business entity applying for a residential rental? No*. NTN s online system is only intended to be used when/if a Landlord requests a credit report on an individual Prospective Tenant (i.e., as opposed to a business, corporation, limited liability company, partnership, etc.) *That being said, however, if a business, corporation, limited liability company, partnership, etc. will be acting as the Lessee (i.e., the Tenant) or as a financial Guarantor for an individual (e.g., an employee) in a residential rental transaction, NTN can run a Dun & Bradstreet credit report on said entity, which will assess its financial stability and the business risk of renting to same. D&B credit reports are only available in-office; and, so NTN has a manual facsimile-based process for same. So, if/when a D&B credit report is necessary, please go to the Gateway, click on the Rental DecisionPoint link, next click Resources; and, then, select Request Form for Commercial Rental Screening. Once said Form is completed, please have the Prospective Tenant follow the instructions thereon for faxing same directly to NTN for processing. 4. What if a Coldwell Banker Landlord Client elects to have Prospective Tenants use NTN? If a Coldwell Banker Landlord Client requests to have all Prospective Tenants complete a Rental Application online and have their credit run by NTN, this fact should be confirmed in writing (e.g., in the parties Exclusive Right to Lease/Rent Agreement). 5. What if a Coldwell Banker Landlord Client decides not to use the NTN system? It is important to: (1) make a Coldwell Banker Landlord Client aware of the advantages of the NTN online Rental Application and credit reporting system, which are available to him/her, and (2) explain to the Landlord the benefits of always utilizing the exact same evaluation process when reviewing a Prospective Tenant s financial eligibility. However, if a Coldwell Banker Landlord Client has access to a credit reporting service that the Landlord prefers to use, then that is the Landlord s prerogative. Revised June 21, 2016 Page 1

2 6. What if a Prospective Tenant does not have an address? A Prospective Tenant must have an address in order to complete the NTN Rental Application and credit report process. Accordingly, if necessary, a Prospective Tenant can simply obtain an address for him/herself through gmail, yahoo or any other web-based system, at no charge, before utilizing NTN s system. 7. What if a Prospective Tenant does not have a computer? When the Prospective Tenant is not represented by a Co-Broke Tenant s Agent, a Coldwell Banker sales associate can invite the Prospective Tenant to a Coldwell Banker Sales Office to use an office resource computer in order for him/her to complete the online Rental Application and authorize the running of his/her credit report. 8. Why does a Prospective Tenant need to set up a password? The Prospective Tenant must create a seven (7) characters long password that includes at least one (1) upper case and one (1) lower case letter, a number and a symbol (as specified on the screen). If, for some reason, the Prospective Tenant does not complete his/her Rental Application during one (1) session, the password will allow him/her to later access the system to complete the Application. 9. Can a Prospective Tenant complete a Rental Application before he/she locates a property to rent? No. The NTN system is not intended to be used for Coldwell Banker sales associates to screen Prospective Tenants or to hypothetically pre-qualify a Prospective Tenant. A Prospective Tenant should not complete a Rental Application unless and/or until he/she has found a suitable property to rent. 10. How long does the Rental Application and credit report process take? The process can take anywhere from fifteen (15) minutes to four (4) hours. NTN will the Coldwell Banker sales associate involved in the rental transaction when the primary Applicant has completed his/her Rental Application. If there are two (2) or more Applicants, the individual Applicants respective NTN DecisionPoint Plus Reports, NTN Tenant Profile Performance Reports and Office of Foreign Assets Control ( OFAC ) Search Reports, along with a combined NTN DecisionPoint Plus Co-Applicant Summary Report, will only be available for the Landlord to view once all Applicants have completed the application process. 11. Can a Prospective Tenant call in his/her Rental Application (or a Coldwell Banker sales associate do so on his/her behalf)? No. Each Prospective Tenant must personally complete his/her Rental Application by submitting said Rental Application online. More specifically, due to the fact that a Prospective Tenant must provide written electronic consent to allow NTN to run his/her credit, and where applicable, a multistate criminal background search, and if/when permissible, a sex offender search, it is simply not possible to call in a Rental Application. Revised June 21, 2016 Page 2

3 12. Is/are there any different process(es) for a Prospective Tenant who is receiving a Section 8 rental income voucher/subsidy/stipend or a disability payment? Yes. If a Prospective Tenant s rental payment will be paid in whole or in part by a governmental agency (e.g., a local Housing Authority, the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income disability programs, etc.), NTN offers the following two (2) options in connection with its processing of said Prospective Tenant s Rental Application: (1) the Prospective Tenant should indicate the amount of the voucher/subsidy/stipend in the Unstated Monthly Income field in the section entitled Additional Monthly Income when completing his/her Rental Application, and/or (2) after the Prospective Tenant submits his/her Rental Application to NTN for processing, a Coldwell Banker Office Manager can contact NTN to advise it that said Prospective Tenant is a voucher/subsidy/stipend holder, such that NTN can then modify its Reports to make note of said fact, which, in turn, causes NTN s system to not calculate a rent to income ratio for said individual. 13. What should a Prospective Tenant do when he/she needs assistance with and/or has technical questions regarding completing his/her online Rental Application? All Prospective Tenants should direct their NTN system user questions regarding completing a Rental Application to NTN at (Monday through Saturday) or cbhelp@ntnonline.com (seven (7) days per week). 14. What is the process for Co-Applicants? Prospective Tenants applying as Co-Applicants should not each simultaneously begin their own separate Rental Applications. Instead, the first Prospective Tenant to apply online will complete his/her Rental Application; and, when doing so, he/she must insert the name and contact information of each additional Applicant. Thereafter, NTN will send an to the other identified Applicant(s) to enable each remaining identified Applicant(s) to complete his/her own separate Rental Application and pay his/her own fee. NTN will then issue an individual NTN DecisionPoint Plus Report, NTN Tenant Performance Profile Report and OFAC Search Report for each Applicant, along with a NTN DecisionPoint Plus Co-Applicant Summary Report, which averages all of the Applicants respective Fair Isaac Corporation ( FICO ) scores together and also uses their combined income to assess the 4-to-1 rent-to-income ratio. 15. Can a Prospective Tenant personally make changes to his/her Rental Application after submitting said Application to NTN? No. Once a Prospective Tenant completes his/her Rental Application, and NTN then sends him/her an stating that his/her NTN DecisionPoint Plus Report is being processed, the only permissible changes that can be made to said Rental Application are to the rental property s address and the rent dollar amount/price. However, only a Coldwell Banker sales associate/office Manager can log in to the NTN system and change the Prospective Tenant s rental property address and/or rent dollar amount/price. The Prospective Tenant personally will NOT be able to: (1) modify said Rental Application him/herself, and/or (2) log back into NTN s system in order to re-access his/her Application. Revised June 21, 2016 Page 3

4 Accordingly, if after a Prospective Tenant submits his/her Rental Application to NTN, he/she subsequently determines that additional changes are necessary (e.g., he/she needs to update, edit and/or clarify any of the information that he/she included in his/her Rental Application regarding his/her income, length of residence or employment), the Prospective Tenant must submit a written request to do so via a Coldwell Banker Agent involved with the rental property. If the Prospective Tenant is working directly with a Coldwell Banker Tenant Agent or Listing Agent, then he/she should please submit his/her request directly to that Agent. If, however, the Prospective Tenant is working with a non-coldwell Banker Tenant s Agent, he/she should have his/her Co-Broke Tenant s Agent submit the Prospective Tenant s written request to the Coldwell Banker Listing Agent involved with the property. Thereafter, to the extent permitted by NTN s system, the Coldwell Banker Tenant Agent or Listing Agent can assist the Prospective Tenant with making the necessary modification(s) by forwarding said change(s) to the appropriate Coldwell Banker Office Manager who, in turn, will notify NTN by calling (Monday through Saturday) or ing cbhelp@ntnonline.com (seven (7) days per week). NTN will not make the changes to the Prospective Tenant s Rental Application; rather, NTN will instead issue a revised NTN DecisionPoint Plus Report that reflects the updated information. 16. What information does NTN provide to a Landlord about a Prospective Tenant in its DecisionPoint Plus Report, NTN Tenant Performance Profile Report and OFAC Search Report? NTN s DecisionPoint Plus Report includes a TransUnion credit review and a FICO score for a Prospective Tenant. NTN s Tenant Performance Profile Report includes housing related public notices and lease violations for said Applicant. And, NTN s OFAC Search Report sets forth the results of NTN s OFAC terrorist search on said Prospective Tenant. NTN also includes a Prospective Tenant s past addresses in its Reports. However, in connection with issuing said Reports, NTN does not verify a Prospective Tenant s employment, salary or personal references. 17. From which of the three (3) credit bureaus does NTN obtain a Prospective Tenant s credit information from? TransUnion. 18. Does NTN confirm/verify a Prospective Tenant s employment, income and/or his/her current residence? No. NTN does not undertake the confirmation of a Prospective Tenant s employment and/or residential information; instead, it is the Landlord s sole responsibility to handle said tasks. Given that there is no national repository via which NTN can automatically verify a Prospective Tenant s employment and/or income, the rent to income assessment on the NTN DecisionPoint Plus Report represents the Applicant s reported income only; and, so, a Landlord should vet same before final income approval is given. Because many employers now decline to verify salary, NTN suggests that a Landlord verify a Prospective Tenant s current employment and salary information by requesting and obtaining a photocopy of his/her current paystub(s). When completing his/her Rental Application, the Prospective Tenant will provide the names and telephone numbers for his/her employer and current Landlord for the Prospective Landlord to contact directly if he/she chooses to do so. A Coldwell Banker Listing Agent should not conduct such verifications on the Landlord s behalf because many issues can arise with respect to the completeness and acceptability of the information, the interpretation thereof, making subjective evaluations regarding same, etc., all of which should be left exclusively to the Landlord. Revised June 21, 2016 Page 4

5 19. Does the NTN DecisionPoint Plus Report include a criminal background check on a Prospective Tenant? Only when/if a Prospective Tenant is applying for a rental via a Coldwell Banker Listing or Tenant Agent affiliated with a Coldwell Banker Sales Office located in Delaware, Pennsylvania or Southern New Jersey, will the NTN DecisionPoint Plus Report include: (1) a multi-state criminal background check, and (2) a sex offender search, on said Prospective Tenant. However, as to the latter, NTN will only conduct a sex offender search when/if same is permitted by law (the laws in some States including, but not necessarily limited to, New Jersey, Nevada and California, prohibit such sex offender searches). So, when/if the rental transaction does NOT involve a Coldwell Banker Listing or Tenant Agent affiliated with a Coldwell Banker Sales Office located in Delaware, Pennsylvania or Southern New Jersey, and a Landlord desires to obtain a criminal background and/or sex offender check on a Prospective Tenant, then said Landlord will need to make his/her own arrangements to obtain such reports. In that regard, a Landlord could expose him/herself to a potential Fair Housing complaint if he/she makes such a decision to conduct a criminal background and/or sex offender search selectively, on a case by case basis. In other words, if a Landlord does decide to obtain a criminal background and/or sex offender check on a Prospective Tenant, then the Landlord should uniformly obtain criminal background and/or sex offender reports for all Prospective Tenants (and, as to the latter, only it/when a sex offender search is permissible under applicable state law). It is also important to note that explicit written consent must be obtained from the Applicant in order to conduct a criminal background and/or sex offender search. 20. How does a Landlord access a Prospective Tenant s Rental Application, NTN DecisionPoint Plus Report, NTN Tenant Performance Profile Report and OFAC Search Report? Once a Prospective Tenant completes his/her Rental Application and submits same to NTN for processing, NTN will then generate its NTN DecisionPoint Plus Report, NTN Tenant Performance Profile Report and OFAC Search Report, which documents are then available for the Landlord to review. In order to provide the Landlord with access to said Reports, the Coldwell Banker sales associate involved in the rental transaction must log onto NRT s Gateway; and, then, click on the Send Report button in the NTN System. By doing so, the NTN system initiates an invitation to the Landlord, which enables the Landlord to review the Prospective Tenant s Rental Application, NTN DecisionPoint Plus Report, NTN Tenant Performance Profile Report and OFAC Search Report through SecureDocs, after the Landlord completes a Certification and Confidentiality Agreement stating, among other things, that he/she will comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. 21. What if a Landlord rejects a Prospective Tenant? When a Landlord rejects a Prospective Tenant based on the contents of the Prospective Tenant s NTN DecisionPoint Plus Report and/or NTN Tenant Performance Profile Report (i.e., the Landlord rejects the Prospective Tenant based on his/her credit), the Landlord must deliver an Adverse Action Letter directly to the Prospective Tenant. This is a legal obligation of the Landlord under the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, which applies each time that a Landlord rejects a Prospective Tenant based upon information contained in his/her credit report. As a courtesy, NTN has available to the Landlord in SecureDocs, two (2) versions of an Adverse Action Letter for usage as appropriate. Revised June 21, 2016 Page 5

6 22. Can a Prospective Tenant s NTN Reports be used for other rental properties without any additional cost? Once generated, the NTN DecisionPoint Plus Report, NTN Tenant Performance Profile Report and OFAC Search Report are valid for a sixty (60) day period, during which time frame the Prospective Tenant can use said Reports for other rental properties (subject to another Landlord being willing to accept the Reports) without any additional cost. 23. Can a Coldwell Banker sales associate/office Manager make a change to the property address and/or rent dollar amount/price on a Prospective Tenant s Rental Application? Yes, if/when necessary, during the sixty (60) day period when the Prospective Tenant s Rental Application, NTN DecisionPoint Plus Report, NTN Tenant Performance Profile Report and OFAC Search Report are accessible, a Coldwell Banker sales associate/office Manager can log in to the NTN system and change the property address and/or rent dollar amount/price on the Prospective Tenant s Rental Application. Specifically, on the Prospective Tenant s screen, the Coldwell Banker sales associate/office Manager should click on the EDIT tab, which will enable him/her to make one (1) change at a time. 24. Can a Coldwell Banker sales associate show the NTN DecisionPoint Plus Report, NTN Tenant Performance Profile Report and OFAC Search Report (and when/if applicable, a multi-state criminal background report and/or sex offender search report) to the Prospective Tenant, or disclose what is in said Reports to the Prospective Tenant without showing him/her the Reports? Pursuant to the contract between Coldwell Banker and NTN, and as per the terms of the Certification that each Coldwell Banker sales associate must agree to and execute before gaining access to the NTN system, Coldwell Banker and its sales associates are prohibited from sharing the NTN DecisionPoint Plus Report, NTN Tenant Performance Profile Report and OFAC Search Report (and when/if applicable, a multi-state criminal background report and/or sex offender search report) or their contents with a Prospective Tenant. Accordingly, in the event that a Prospective Tenant requests access to his/her NTN Reports, the Coldwell Banker sales associate should direct him/her to contact NTN directly for assistance at: or P.O. Box #390, Springfield, PA What should a Coldwell Banker sales associate do when a Prospective Tenant insists upon receiving a copy of his/her NTN Reports? The Coldwell Banker sales associate should provide the Prospective Tenant with the telephone number and address for NTN such that the Prospective Tenant can contact NTN directly for further assistance. Coldwell Banker materials, programs and/or meetings that are not for compliance purposes are optional for a sales associate s use or attendance as an independent contractor affiliated with Coldwell Banker. Additionally, a sales associate s usage thereof and/or attendance there at is not required for his/her continued affiliation with Coldwell Banker. Revised June 21, 2016 Page 6