Tenant Screening: Spotting the Liars

How to Avoid Costly Tenant Screening Mistakes
landlord help Rental applicants come with all sorts of unique backgrounds and circumstances.  Many aren’t perfect, but they’ll do just the same.  However, some are fraudulent tenants – flat-out liars – and a landlord must spot them quickly to avoid hazards down the road.

Here are some things to watch for:

1.  A candidate that has not, or will not, provide the real name and number of the current or previous landlord.  There can be lag time between when an eviction is initiated, and when it will show up on a person’s tenant screening reports.  It’s during that “grace period” that the soon-to-be-evicted tenant will contact you to secure a new rental.

2.  The SSN that is provided doesn’t match the candidate’s profile.  SSN’s are coded by state, and additionally, all the remaining screening reports should match up to the information you see in front of you.

3.  The candidate doesn’t complete items on the application, like previous addresses or dates,  because they “can’t remember”.  That may be the case, but that’s still not a good sign!

4.  All the references have met with unfortunate circumstances — the company closed, the boss retired, the previous landlord died, they have no next of kin — no one remembers this candidate.

5.  The candidate wants to pay in cash – a telltale sign of  non-traceable business activities.  This is particularly problematic if they offer to pay you more rent than you are asking for, unless you have an amazing rental property with candidates standing in line to get in.

The best defense to a fraudulent tenant is to cross-reference information against a variety of tenant screening reports.  One report may show a deviation from the others, for instance, an address that’s not on the application.  Running an eviction or criminal report may explain why the tenant is lying.  Available tenant screening reports include:

Credit Reports
Eviction Reports (national option available)
Criminal Background Reports (national option available)
Previous Address Tenant History
Sex Offender and Terrorist lists
SSN Fraud Detector Report
TRACE Report
Telecheck Bad Check Database

Previous landlord verification and employment verification services are also available.

American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services for landlords related to your rental housing investment, including rental forms, tenant debt collection, tenant background checks, insurance and financing. Find out more at www.joinaaoa.org.