Make a Oregon Rental Application

The Oregon Rental Application Process

Rental application forms collect personal information from potential tenants in a uniform fashion and give the landlord an in-depth look into each applicant’s credit history, criminal record, financial status, and income. With such a personal look into an applicant’s credentials, the landlord can make a well-informed decision about which applicant is most likely to be a responsible tenant who can afford to pay the monthly rent.

Landlords usually charge a non-refundable fee to process applications (generally less than $100).

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A Sample Oregon Rental Application with Examples for Each Step

Writing an Oregon rental application form is an important task for landlords and property managers since it contains screening criteria.

Before creating the form, Oregon landlords should consider whether they'll allow married couples or couples in a civil union to be listed on the same application or require each person to complete a separate application. If you decide to allow both applicants to include their answers on one application, be careful to leave enough room on the form.

Your rental application form should include the following sections:

• Collect personal information: their full legal name, birthday, social security number, cell phone number, work number, email address, and emergency contact information.
• A section to collect rental history, starting with their current rental property. Include the full address (city, state, and zip code) and the landlord's contact information. Include space for how long the applicant has lived on the rental property and the amount paid as monthly rent. Include additional space for previous rental history, contact information for the previous landlord, the length of time the applicant lived on the property, and the amount of rent paid.
• A section to collect employment history, starting with their current employer. Include the employer's name, full address (including the city, state, and zip code), the applicant's job title, how long the applicant has worked for the employer, the supervisor’s name, and the phone number for their supervisor or human resources. You should leave additional space to capture previous employment history as well.
• Capture each income source, including its source, how often the income is received, and the amount. It should also ask whether the applicant has checking or savings accounts and which financial institutions manage those accounts.
• A section to collect vehicle information for each vehicle owned by the applicant. You should ask how many vehicles the applicant owns and the description of each. Include the year, the make, the model, the color, and the license plate number. The benefit of this is that Oregon landlords will know whether the vehicles present on the property indeed belong there. This information is particularly helpful if the rental property relies on parking permits or has limited parking places.
• Obtain the name and age of each person who will live in the rental unit with the potential tenant.
• Ask how many pets the prospective tenant has, the type of pets, and their sizes.
• Authorization for you to run the background check (including criminal history) and credit check once the applicant signs and dates the rental application. This section should also include a reminder that the fee paid is non-refundable.
• Include a signature line as well as a blank space for the date.

Rental Application Resources for Tenants in Oregon

If you're a renter in Oregon, you're a party to a rental lease agreement, a legally binding contract. Many renters may feel as if they have no recourse if there's a problem. As a renter, you do have legal rights. Here are some helpful links that will help you better understand your rights:

• The Oregon Bar's website provides a lot of information useful for renters. Some of the topics include the rights and duties of both tenants and landlords, illegal housing discrimination, rights of a mobile home owner, information about rent increases, information about residential evictions, how you can get repairs made, what you can do if you're in a rental that is being foreclosed on, and more.
• Oregon Legal Aid provides free information for renters about eviction reasons, what you can do if the landlord wants to increase your rent payment, application fees and information about security deposits, and more.
• The Oregon Legal Research website has an entire page of free and low-cost legal services. These programs include the Modest Means Program, which offers assistance to low-income individuals and families needing help with landlord-tenant issues, The Oregon Law Center, St. Andrew Legal Clinic, and more.

Oregon Rental Application Laws

Oregon has no state laws that instruct a tenant on how much a security deposit may be. However, whatever deposit the landlord does set, they may not increase it unless both the landlord and tenant agree, perhaps to accommodate for a pet. Furthermore, the landlord must return the deposit in no more than 31 days (Or. Rev. Stat. § 90.300).