How to verify income with military applicant?

Question

I have received an application from a prospective tenant who is with the Army, but he did not provide any contact info for me to verify his employment/income. I will request that information, but due to my lack of experience with military applicants, I'm not sure what info I need. Would it be his superior officer's name and phone number? If he gives me a name and number to call, how do I know I'm actually talking to a military officer and not some friend who's just acting the part?

Also, do people in the Army get some sort of pay stub that I can request a copy of? Or can their income be verified online with the military somehow?

Kimberly T. · Answer

Thank you! I was able to verify he is active duty Army via the link you provided.

How do I get his LES? Is that something he could email me a copy of, or a link to? Sorry, this is all new to me.

Also, thank you for your service!

Chris Mason · Answer

Ask him for his "LES / paystub," he will get the idea. If he has a military ID (showing his pay-grade), you can confirm his base pay and housing allowance (called "BAH") online too. "E-5 base pay 2017" and "zip code 94601 BAH e-5 with dependents 2017" are the google searches.

What troops make is quite literally an act of congress, and all in the public record.

Chris Mason · Answer

LES. Leave and Earnings Statement. That's a paystub.

For WVOE, this website takes like 5 seconds. You don't need to call anyone when you have it in writing from .mil direct.

You will note that I have an "Active Duty End Date," letting you know that I'm presently a civilian, and that you should reject me as a tenant applicant if I'm trying to pretend that I'm active duty still.

Make sure that whatever "Active Duty Status Date" they give you, bump it forward in time a month or two when you search, because it searches for people who enlisted "on or before" this date but will return null results for folks who joined "after" this date. So if I put in July 1 2001 (when I actually started July 13 according to the computer), it just shows "N/A" across the board even though the SSN/DOB/name/etc is correct. This is relevant because boot camp is chaotic, and who knows which day the serviceman's admin pogues actually typed the numbers into a computer, relative to when they arrived in boot camp. It might take a day, a week, or a month.... so give 'em that month or two when you search! Also make sure you ask married women for maiden name, check that too.

There's a Coast Guard base in Alameda, so this comes up with landlord clients in Oakland/Berkeley/Alameda/etc frequently.