This InForum article describes a Craigslist rental scam that shares similarities with a complaint from a recent caller to HOME Line’s hotline. The call inspired us to post a few tips for a successful apartment search. Here, we offer suggestions for doing your own background check on prospective landlords, as well as for ensuring that you do not fall victim to scams in the local want ads.
DIY Landlord Background Checks:
Before making a final decision on an apartment, do some Internet research on the prospective landlord. Don’t just think of the landlord as the person who is showing you a place or taking your application. There can be anywhere from one individual to a couple of corporations who might be running the place that you are thinking of renting. It is sometimes difficult to find information about a company or person, unless you are searching from a number of angles. Here are some different entities to consider searching:
- The actual owner of the property. This can be an individual or a corporation (a formally registered business entity). If it is a corporation, there may be several investors (owners).
- An individual manager or leasing agent who would be your primary contact.
- A corporation that is considered the management company.
- Any number of on- or off-site staff who may be employed by a single owner or a corporation.
- For example, research the individual or business to whom rent is paid, and/or who is listed as the “Agent for Service of Process.”
- Also try looking up the property name and/or address.
Criminal and civil court case records can be accessed at http://pa.courts.state.mn.us/default.aspx. You can search for either civil or criminal records involving a person or company, and find how often a landlord or property owner has been taken to court for civil cases like rent escrow, conciliation court, or filed evictions or unlawful detainers against other tenants. If you see a lot of rent escrow cases filed, for example, it may suggest that this person does not make timely or adequate repairs.
Search by:
- Choosing “Civil, Family & Probate Case Records” (All of tenant-landlord law is considered civil law.)
- Searching by party.
- Use a * in place of letters if you are unsure of the spelling. For example, type “Jo*” for John or Jon.
- You can also look up criminal records by:
- Choosing “Criminal/Traffic/Petty Case Records”
- Searching by party.
Check out apartment review sites where tenants post their experiences with a landlord or building. These can be helpful when you are gathering information from a lot of sources, but it is not advisable to base your whole decision on these alone. Since posts can be and are sometimes made by anyone they are not always reliable on their own.
Try doing a basic Internet search on a landlord or property; sometimes newspaper articles, city council minutes, or even law suits could come up.
Visit the Better Business Bureau’s website to see if other tenants have lodged any complaints against the landlord.
While the Internet is a great place to find information on landlords who are known for bad business, it doesn’t always provide the information you really want to know. Your online searches may even turn up nothing. One of your best sources of information is talking to several tenants in the building to get a variety of viewpoints. Information to try to get includes:
- Quality and overall atmosphere of the apartments
- If there are problem neighbors or concerns with management
- Responsiveness of the landlord to requests for repairs or other services
- Knowledge of whether security deposits are returned promptly
- If the apartment is worth the current rent advertised
- Any tips for move in or for a tenancy
Know what you should expect and watch for situations that don’t seem right.
Most landlords charge tenants for the cost of a background check (usually somewhere between $25 and $75 per adult). If the landlord charges a fee to run the background check, he or she must:
- Have a clearly written set of criteria for what circumstances will cause an application to be denied.
- Return the application fee and notify the applicant if the landlord denies you for something not written in the criteria.
- Process applications in order of receiving them. This means if 10 people apply for a single apartment unit, a landlord cannot pick his or her favorite of the 10 after running the background checks on all of them. Instead, the landlord must check the background of the first applicant and if approved, return the application fees to the remaining nine people. If the first applicant is denied, the landlord can move on to the second, process it as the first was, and continue as appropriate for each approval or denial in order.
You should never be asked to fill out a credit report or pay a deposit before viewing an apartment. If the landlord refuses to let you see a place before you share private information or offer money, you probably should walk away.
Never apply for or sign a lease for an apartment without seeing the actual unit. You should insist on seeing the actual apartment unit they will be renting before signing anything or offering any money.
You should always take time to review a lease before signing it. If a landlord is reluctant to provide the lease in advance, it should be a warning sign.
Before answering an ad posted on Craigslist, take a minute to read their page on avoiding scams at http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams and consider their personal safety tips.
