New tenant immediatly changed his cell number after signing lease

[Kenneth Davis]

Each new tenant I sign a lease with, always give me a new challenge to face. I recently signed a tenant on a month to month lease whom informed me that he will be changing his cell phone number hours after signing the lease with me. He also informed me that he maintains a seperate mailing address for his mail which he did not provide me a copy of.

   I have had other tenants change their number but provide me a new number, a month or two after moving; so should I be concerned? He had an out of state number which he maintained through his previous lease I believe, with another local landlord; so I just wondered if this would raise a flag to any other landlords here? He did offer a reason to validate the number change: stating he had lots of enemies he wanted to avoid, "Personally talking to this tenant, he did not strike me as a trouble maker but rather very bookish and easy going." My tenant  screening service which I have trusted for 9 years now qualified him through their checks, despite my investigating discovered a previous landlord reference to be inacurrate by phone number which he seemed very apologetic about. What is a good time frame for me to wait for him to give me his new number? I plan going to his employer to confirm his number had been changed if they will cooperate with me or should I give him the 7 day notice to provide this information? Sorry for any mispellings I am notorious for my grammer. One other hair raiser about this guy to me was the fact that he was moving from a $450.00 rental too my $300.00 rental and said he could not afford the $40.00 transfer fee nor to have the financial ability for at least two weeks. He does drive and commute to work and I know he has to pay for gasoline. I took the power out of my name after the walk through inspection, so he is currently in the dark.

[Marcia Maynard]

To do my job, I need reliable contact information for all of our tenants. When tenants move in, we create a "Tenant Information Sheet" where we record tenant contact information, vehicle descriptions, and emergency contact information. How tenants prefer to communicate has been changing in recent years.  We discuss this with the tenants... "During your tenancy, we will need to contact you from time to time. What is your preferred means... home phone, mobile phone, work phone, text, email, post mail? We will need at least one way to contact you for immediate needs and at least one way to contact you for routine correspondence." Then take down the information you need. If the tenant gives you push back, assure them this information is kept confidential in their tenant file and is necessary. Don't wait for him to give you the new number, ask for it.  No need to call the employer; they are unlikely to reveal such information.

Also, remind the tenant that in the event he changes his contact information, he needs to notify you right away. You need to keep your records updated. With the frequency of phone number changes that people sometimes make, this has become a challenge for us. I am about to add another term to our rental agreement that will require the tenant to update the landlord in a timely manner of phone changes, vehicle changes, and emergency contact information changes.

We too use MTM rental agreements, which is good because it doesn't lock us in. In the event we need to change the rental agreement terms or need to move a tenant out, it is much easier to do so this way.