Lakewood Offers Tenant-Screening Service

The city of Lakewood recently rolled out its newest strategy in its effort to address vacant and rental housing, partnering with a Maryland-based company to offer landlords resident-screening services.

The city negotiated a partnership with CoreLogic SafeRent, which will provide databases of landlord-tenant and criminal records.

There are no up-front costs for landlords, who instead will have options depending on which packages they buy from SafeRent, said Kevin Butler, the city’s law director. 

“From what we've been provided, packages for most searches will be heavily discounted from the normal pricing, which ranges from about $15 to $60 per search,” he said, adding that landlords in Lakewood will get discounts up to 40 percent off.

In the end, Butler said, a property owner in the city can run a basic search on a prospective tenant for under $10.

He said this is the first time there has been such an initiative. 

“This was part of Mayor Summers' and city council's rental-housing initiatives, which begin in earnest in 2010,” Butler said.

Summers has said that while in office.

Other initiatives include city-hosted landlord training seminars, new , more frequent inspections and a revamp of the . 

In addition, the city also began issuing its — a handbook providing property owners with guidelines, resources in hopes of keeping up the city's aging housing stock.

“Finding good tenants is more challenging than ever,” Mayor Mike Summers said in a statement. “Screening services like SafeRent dramatically increase the odds of success.”

Screening applicants is one of the three requirements for obtaining a housing license under city ordinance, which went into effect in May. 

Those interested in more information about the program — including how to obtain the discount — are encouraged to visit the city’s website.