A landlord recommendation letter is usually requested by previous tenants applying to a new rental. While not all landlords request a letter of recommendation from a tenant’s previous landlord, they may if the tenant does not have a long credit history or is an international tenant without a social security number.
For that reason, it’s important to include all the necessary information the landlord needs to determine if the prospective tenant is the right fit. We share what to include in a landlord recommendation letter and a free template to take the guesswork out of writing a letter for your previous tenants.
A landlord recommendation letter should include your contact information, such as your email and phone number in case they want to reach out. The letter should also include:
Make it clear that a landlord wrote the letter, as there can be instances where letters are written by a tenant’s friend or colleague.
To avoid violating Fair Housing Laws, avoid commenting on a tenant’s sex, race, color, national origin, religion, and familial status in your landlord recommendation letter. Even if you believe the comments are positive, this can still be considered a violation that can impact your rental business. Some states may also have additional restrictions on what you can comment on regarding your tenants, so it’s advised to research your local landlord-tenant laws when writing a letter of recommendation.
You may want to avoid writing a landlord recommendation letter if you did not have a positive experience with the tenant. Instead, you should suggest the landlord speak with you directly to better understand your reasons why.
A letter of reference for a tenant should reference honest, relevant information and be checked for spelling errors. To give you a general idea of what to include, here is a letter of recommendation template to use for tenants you recommend:
I am the [LANDLORD/PROPERTY MANAGER] for [ADDRESS]. I’m writing this letter of recommendation on my previous tenant, [TENANT NAME], who resided in my rental property located at [ADDRESS] for [DURATION]. [TENANT NAME] moved in on [MOVE-IN DATE] for a lease term of [LEASE DURATION], which expired on [EXPIRE DATE].
My tenant has a strong history of making on-time rent payments and has proven to be a reliable tenant. They maintained the property well and cleaned it prior to moving out of the property. I had no complaints from neighbors or lease violations during their tenancy.
I would gladly rent to [TENANT NAME] again and recommend them as a tenant. If you have any questions for me, I can be reached at [CONTACT INFORMATION] between the hours of [TIME FRAME].
If your previous tenant committed a lease violation, manipulate the template to include information about each violation and the resolution. The same applies to tenants with pets — call out if the tenant had a pet and if they paid pet rent or had any pet-related issues the landlord should be aware of.
Writing a landlord recommendation letter is a great way to inform other landlords about your experience with tenants. To help you reflect on your previous renting experience with each tenant, you can reference your tenant history through your Avail dashboard to easily see if a tenant paid rent on time, and escalated maintenance requests right away.
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