Qualifying tenants can avoid tragedy.

The disappearance of small property owner Irene Silverman, and the suspicion that a tenant and his mother who were arrested on other charges could be her abductors and/or murderers, has property owners and brokers once again renewing their faith in credit checks and other means of qualifying tenants,

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According to Finance Department records obtained from dial-up Taxpayer Assistance, real estate taxes of $23,588.50 and due on July 1st were actually received on June 22nd, just in time to ensure a zero balance for the alleged Kimes plot.

Published reports and interviews revealed that when he rented the apartment at 20 East 65th Street from the congenial Silverman, Kenneth Kimes used the alias "Manny Gurein." This was actually a Queens resident whose wallet was stolen about three years before. But Gurein never thought about the stolen wallet, even when he tried to get credit or loans and was turned down.

If Silverman had run a simple credit report on her prospective tenant, even the fictitious name could have revealed someone who was a bad credit risk, and might have stopped her from renting the $6,000 per month apartment to the suspect.

"There is a whole class of predators," explained Nevel Dehart, executive vice president of the Registry, which provides a variety of information for property owners and brokers. "They look for vulnerable people, they sit back and they observe, and they try to exploit. They are predators and try to disarm people and make you feel guilty."

The Registry provides credit checks from all three reporting companies - Experian, Trans Union and Equifax - as well as Housing Court information and other services, including a 75-cent FBI "Wanted Fugitive" search.

When signing on for that service, owners allow the FBI to examine their Registry records of those that have sought to or rented properties. If they are wanted, the FBI will drop by one day without warning and arrest the individual at either your building or their last known address.

"We have gotten a fair number of drug dealers," Dehart said.

The Rent Stabilization Association (RSA), an owner's group, provides similar services for its members through its Court and Credit program, said Michael Printz, director of marketing and sales.

RSA provides information from the three credit reporting agencies and interprets the codes into an easy-to-understand, plain English format.

They also check New York State Housing Court data from every bureau that reports into the Housing Court system, and perform income, employment and/or landlord verification, too.

"We advocate that people do a thorough background check, because once the becomes a leaseholder, it's very difficult extricate them," Printz said. "We advise people to pull more than one credit report. I've seen enough instances where one bureau has information and the other doesn't."

While not always dangerous, Dehart said there are "chronic delinquents" that go from apartment to apartment. They usually don't pay their rent, and take advantage of the court system for as long as they can. "They represent just an incredible amount of wasted time, money and effort to landlords who don't take advantage of what we offer," he explained.

Dan Margulies, executive director of the Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP), a middle market owner's group, agrees owners should be screen tenants through credit services, check them out with their prior landlord, and run court searches to determine if there were previous actions against them.

"If there are personal references to be checked, they should be checked," Margulies advised. "It's hard to know when you have someone with very little history, but you have to figure that most people aren't crazy. There is no magic bullet or blood test to identify a problem, but it pays to be cautious and spend some time with the person who is applying. If you have six or eight or 10 apartments in your own home, you have to be even more careful."

Broker Carmen Lee Shue, president of Lee Shue Realty, is conscientious about obtaining credit reports, court, financial and employment information on her clients before she brings them to look at any apartments or properties for sale.

But she is frustrated by employers who, because of other legal concerns, are now "fearful" of providing any information about their employees.

A letter from an employer can be written by an immediate supervisor who is a friend, rather than the personnel department, she noted.

Dehart even checks out the qualifications of the brokers that use the Registry's services in order to ensure they have the "permissible purpose" to run credit checks and hold the appropriate licenses to conduct their own business.

He also believes cooperative and condominium boards should runs checks on their management companies as well as the individual assigned to their property, and that even the board members, who may be entitled to sign checks, should not go unresearched.

"If they know they are going to be checked and there is a problem, they won't run for the board," he said. Dehart did back off when it came to small buildings "where everyone knows each other."

Criminal checks, and even sexual predator checks under Megan's Law information releases, are also becoming more important, Dehart stressed, because not running one could backfire if something bad happens to another individual, since the legal system often looks at what you could have done to prevent the problem.

"If you could do something relatively easy, and a reasonable, prudent action could have prevented this terrible thing, and it comes up in a later lawsuit that for $25 bucks you could have found out this guy had a rap sheet, you could have avoided a lot of problems," he said.

Even commercial buildings have to worry about the credit-worthiness of their prospective tenants, and that they do not intend to conduct any illegal activities on the premises.

Potential problems can range from drug sales to drug factories, fabrication of counterfeit items, manufacturing without regard to the labor laws such as where illegal immigrants might be employed or enslaved, or even places of prostitution or weapons sales, illegal social clubs and the like.

More often, tenants with small businesses don't have the wherewithal or staying power to continue paying rent.

"I interviewed every tenant," said John I. Gilbert III, a former president of the RSA who is now an executive vice president and COO of Rudin Management, with regard to the tenants coming into 55 Broad Street, the Information Technology Center that kicked off the Downtown revival.

Since many of the tenants were fairly new companies, Gilbert said along with his personal meeting and the usual credit checks, a Rudin executive also visited the existing offices of every potential tenant.

"If something didn't smell right, we didn't do the deal," he said, noting the problems ended up being "whether or not the company was a viable business, rather than [if they were conducting] a criminal activity."

The Rudins also required very stringent financial security if the balance sheet was out of whack. Gilbert now points with pride to the 100 percent occupied building, where only one tenant has gone out of business.

"From a financial standpoint, we're very, very pleased," he said of the building's success.

When it comes to selling buildings, brokers also have to be careful to qualify bidders and make sure they are not just dreamers. They have to seek buyers that can close, and not just tie up the property while futilely searching for partners, money or a contract flip.

Brian Ezratty, senior executive director and partner at Eastern Consolidated Properties, who handles many large investment sales, said he tries to qualify potential buyers by running credit histories and obtaining bank references.

"I have brokers calling me with offers and they can't understand why we want the information," Ezratty noted. "Plenty of times people throw out offers and then they can't deliver."

In the past, he has heard of buyers showing up at closings with letters of credit from Third World banks rather than cash, or making other promises that can't be delivered.

"The people that get hurt are the people that own individual properties, or two or three, and they use it as an investment, but they have no clue as to the consequences of letting someone bad into their building," stressed Dehart.

While he pointed to the Michael Keaton movie "Pacific Heights," about a tenant who moves into an apartment and takes over the property, as an "extreme" example, Silverman's disappearance and the Kimes trail of strange deeds brings such an occurrence back to the realm of possibility.