Renewing lease - do we need to re-do background checks

[Roy Mitle]

We have been renting our townhouse for 1 year. We want to renew lease

a) Do we need to background check of tenants again. they have always been on time and given us no problems ever.

b) what is a typical rental increase per year. I was thinking 4-5%. The place is in bay area california so rents are high last year as well. So I don't know if I should continue to increase by 5%. The tenants really want to renew - its a good location etc. and they are well settled. So I do have bargaining power but want to give them justification on rent increase by this much.