Verifying the Landlord on a Rental Application
My management company, Bluewater Property Management LLC, received an application, and the listed landlord for their current address was an individual instead of a management company or apartment complex.
Ok, that is normal and happens a lot of the time. But, it means there is at least one extra step.
I want to know the "landlord" is the actual landlord, so we pull the county tax records to check who is listed as the property owner. If the names match, all is good, and we follow the regular processing steps.
If the names do not match, more steps need to be taken.
Step 1 is to call the "landlord" and ask them directly if they are the property owner, and if they say yes, a red flag pops up. Sometimes the person will say "no, I help my buddy named "actual property owner."" If this is the case, all is good because it sometimes happens, so no red flag but an item that needs to be resolved. Either way, we move to the next step.
Step 2 is to search the local county eviction filings. Although we screen tenants, the reports do not always show eviction filings, especially recent eviction filings.
In this particular case, the "landlord" was not the property owner, but in Step 1, he claimed to be the property owner. In Step 2, I found a recent eviction by the actual property owner that had not appeared on the screening eviction history report because it was only 9 days ago and the applicant did not disclose it.
At this point, the application is declined, so no need for Step 3. If Steps 1 and 1 were cleared, we would have moved onto Step 3.
Step 3 is to find out why the person listed as the landlord is providing information on behalf of the actual property owner. Sometimes there are valid reasons, but commonly, the reasons result in a declined application.
When screening applications, there are only two questions that need a "yes" answer.
1 - Will the applicant pay rent on time for the term of the lease?
2 - Will the applicant take care of the property?
It can take a lot of work to answer those questions, so a property manager or landlord must have clearly written policies and application processing steps they apply to EVERY applicant the same.
Obviously, there is no method to guarantee a tenant will pay rent and/or take care of the property, but we need to make the best decision based on the available information.
Aaron Silverman