What the application asks, and why
Identity and contact come first, because you cannot screen an applicant you cannot reach. Household composition follows, since occupancy limits and lease terms depend on who is actually living there. Income and employment come next, with a separate line for other income so a pension, a stipend or self-employment is not forced into a single number that misrepresents it.
Rental history asks for the current landlord and a phone number, plus the reason for moving. Those two answers together surface most problems before a credit check does. Two references round it out, and the consent paragraph makes clear what the applicant is authorising you to verify.
Filling it online instead of on paper
You can type the answers directly into the application and print the completed sheet, which is cleaner than handwriting and much easier to file. Fields are placed on the printed lines, so the finished page looks like a typed form rather than a document with boxes floating over it.
Send a share link instead and the applicant fills the same fields in a browser, with no account and nothing to install. Their answers come back to your document as text, timestamped, ready to print or attach to the tenancy file.
Keeping the application consistent across applicants
Fair housing practice depends on treating every applicant the same way, and the simplest way to do that is to use one form with the same questions in the same order every time. Because the template is fixed, the only thing that changes between applicants is the answers.
Print or save one copy as your reference, then run every applicant through the same sheet. If you later need to explain a decision, you have an identical record for each person who applied.
What to do with the answers afterwards
An application contains personal information, so it deserves the same care as a tax return. Keep completed applications somewhere you control, share them only with the people who need to read them, and delete the ones for applicants you did not select once your retention period ends.
Watermarked drafts in DocPacker are cleaned up automatically, and the countdown is printed on every saved document so nothing disappears while you still need it. Once a document is downloaded clean, the copy on your own device is yours to keep.
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