Tenant information sheet template
A contact list for the people on your leases: name, email, phone, and a tags column for the facts you sort by. It is short on purpose. What it leaves out matters as much as what it keeps.
Tenant information sheet columns
The tenant-information-sheet-template.csv file has these columns, in this order.
- name
- phone
- tags
What each column is for
name is the tenant's full name as it appears on the lease. email is where notices and receipts go, and it is how LeaseRooster tells two people named Chris Lee apart. phone is the number the tenant actually answers. tags is for sorting: long-term, autopay, renewal-due, has-a-dog. Separate tags with semicolons, and keep them to facts about the tenancy, never about the person.
Why there is no Social Security number or birth date column
You need those for about ten minutes, when you run a screening report. After that, the report goes in a locked file. The numbers do not belong on a contact list you email to a handyman or open on a shared laptop. LeaseRooster's tenant importer holds that line for you. If the file has a column named ssn, tin, dob, date_of_birth, or birthdate, every row is marked with an error and nothing imports.
Why there is no race, religion, or family status column either
The federal Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to treat a tenant differently because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability (42 U.S.C. § 3604). A column that records any of those is evidence you never wanted to create. The importer also rejects columns such as race, religion, national_origin, sex, gender, marital_status, familial_status, source_of_income, and disability. The same goes for tags. A tag like "family with kids" is the kind of note that turns up in a fair housing complaint.
Who reads this sheet
You, mostly. Also whoever covers for you on vacation, the plumber who needs to call ahead, and a property manager if you ever hand the building over. That is why it should hold contact details and nothing that could hurt a tenant if the file got forwarded.
Fair Credit Reporting Act and the FTC Disposal Rule
15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.; 16 CFR Part 682. If you screened a tenant, the credit or background report is a consumer report under the FCRA. The FTC says its Disposal Rule (16 CFR Part 682) covers landlords, who must dispose of consumer report information in a way that is reasonable and appropriate to prevent anyone else from reading or using it. A Social Security number or birth date copied from that report into a shared spreadsheet is a copy you will forget to destroy. Consult a licensed attorney for advice on your specific situation.
Keep tenant contacts where the lease is
Import your tenant list, then message tenants and keep every lease in one place. Free for your first 3 units.