Deceptive tenant habits: What they do --

Owning or managing a rental property can be a full time job and a full time headache if your landlord business does not have a fraud prevention program; particularly, if you get a deceptive tenant that has previously played the fraud rental game and has intent to defraud or deprive you of rental fees even before the tenancy agreement has been signed.

A tenancy agreement means absolutely nothing to deceptive tenants as it is a contract that is meant to be broken.

These individuals use landlords as a revolving line of credit and more often than not cause thousands of dollars worth of damages to the rental property. A revolving line of credit and damages they never plan on paying.

So let's analyze what causes a deceptive tenant to do this.

No consequence for their actions. They can't be charged criminally unless you can prove intent, which is a rare circumstance.

No job, no assets, and no forwarding address are the norm for many deceptive tenants. It is difficult to locate them and useless in most instances to initiate any kind of civil action against them. They have nothing that you can take away from them which means that they don't have to care what they do to your rental property.

Many landlords, property managers, and resident managers are not well versed in the property rental fraud game and thus there is little or no fraud prevention. So, deceptive tenants go from one unsuspecting landlord to another, skipping-out on their rental obligations.

Landlords do not network to identify these Individuals thus allowing the revolving line of credit to continue.

Delinquent tenants have at their disposal counterfeit or phony ID, friends that pretend to be former landlords and employers to give them favorable references and Internet companies that supply phony resumes and job records.

This is how the fraud rental game is played and if you haven't been subjected to this in the past, there is a very good chance that you will be in the future.

Landlord habits: What you should do --

Landlords, property managers and resident managers allow the prospective tenant to complete the rental application form on their own. They never check ID and often do not require the application to be completed in its entirety. And the biggest faux pas of all: They don't do any tenant screening or conduct any due diligence with respect to the information provided on the rental application!

How do you really know that your prospective tenant is not playing the property rental fraud game?

Would you hand over the keys to your car in the same manner that you hand the keys over to your rental property? How well do you know that person?

We've all heard stories about the tenant from hell and have hoped it would never happen to us. Here are tips that will help you win when prospective tenants play the game with you:

Don't believe anything that you are told and/or what is on the rental application until you verify!

Make sure that the rental application has been completed in its entirety. That does not mean 90% than means 100% filled-in and signed or the prospective tenant writes NA for items that are Not Applicable.

If a prospective tenant only completes part of the rental application, s/he may be hiding something. If the prospective tenant has an attitude when asked to complete your rental application form, this may be an indication of hidden problems that you probably do not want to deal with.

Obtain the prospective tenant's rental history. A background check will verify the information that was given to you on the rental application form. You will be able to compare the information and determine if your prospective tenant is truthful or not. A background check will give you information with respect to pay patterns, and will be a good indicator of how you can expect to be paid.

Remember, credit checks from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion DO NOT include reports from many mom and pop landlords, or landlords that have not pursued court action, or tenants that have left in the middle of the night with unpaid rent. The Big-3 credit reporting agencies are geared toward collecting information on home loans, banks loan, car loans, credit card companies, and other businesses providing consumer credit.

Only a very small percentage of landlords qualify or can afford to pay the huge fees required to report rental history to the credit agencies. Deceptive tenants know this fact and keep their credit reports polished for landlords that rely exclusively on this type of background check. Just think for a moment, have you ever reported your bad tenant to any of the Big-3? If you have, you are most certainly the exception and not the rule.

Google all combinations of the prospective tenant's name, cell phone number, social security number, driver's license number, previous addresses, references, and other rental application information. Check as many Internet search engines and sites as you can and always check these links:

http://www.NoPayTenants.com/

http://www.RipOffReport.com/

http://www.AngiesList.com/

Check with all of the previous landlords on the rental application. When the alleged landlord answers the phone ask if s/he has any available rental units. If it is a friend of the prospective tenant that you are calling, you will catch them of guard and they will tell you that you have a wrong number.

Be devious when conducting your interview to ensure that you are not talking to a friend of the prospective tenant (so John Doe tells me that he rented a two bedroom apartment, is that true or "John Doe tells me that he resided there for two years, can you confirm that or he tells me that he didn't get along with one of the neighbors, can you tell me about that). If you can get this alleged landlord to agree with what you are saying on everything, you probably are not dealing with a landlord but rather a friend because what you have just stated has been completely made up. The real landlord will not agree with you and will tell you what was actually rented and how long the tenancy was for. Friends of the prospective tenant that think they are helping out will tell you what they think you want to hear.

The current or present landlord will just want to get rid of their problem tenant and will therefore give good references just to leave the problem behind. You may also have to be deceitful with them too ("did you have any problems with John Doe; he tells me that he didn't like some of the neighbors and had a couple of disagreements with them, what was the problem"). This may get the landlord to tell you that there was a problem and reveal things about your prospective tenant.

Again, remember, this is a game and how well you play this game will determine what kind of tenant you get and your success in the rental business.

You will need to do some math here. Check with current and the previous employer to verify if the monthly income on the rental application is enough for the tenant to pay the rent with all their bills. Do not rely on documents, as noted earlier anyone can create these on a computer. Instead, call on the telephone and verify all information with the human resources department of each employer or the employer's bookkeeper or accountant.

Now, look to see if the employer is listed online or in the phone book or directory assistance and if not why not? Ask the bookkeeper or accountant for the physical address of the employer with zip code. You can verify that zip code against the rental application information at the USPS website. Also, what is the prospective tenant's job description The employer should be able to answer these questions without any hesitation, if in fact it's a legitimate employer of the prospective tenant.

Ask the prospective tenant for copies of previous telephone and cell phone bills, cable TV bills, electric and gas bills, water and sewer bills, and don't forget a copy of the driver's license. The name and address on these documents should match the information on the application form. If not, why not and get an answer or you could be dealing with a deceptive tenant.

What kind of vehicle does the prospective tenant drive? Is it a beater car or a junker? Is it all banged-up? Is it extremely dirty or not taken care of? Is the vehicle full of trash and fast food bags and wrappers? This is indicative of the way the prospective tenants will look after your rental property after you hand over the keys.

Professional property and resident managers have the prospective tenant complete the rental application in person and provide a deposit that will be returned if the rental application is not accepted. A prospective tenant that wants to take the application home with them or bulks on a deposit or doesn't have a personal checking account and pays everything with cash is a dead giveaway of a potentially deceptive tenant, so be careful.

If the application is accepted, then a tenancy agreement is prepared and reviewed with the prospective tenant before signing. This is an absolute essential for the landlord so that there can be no misunderstanding with respect to the terms of the rental and what is or is not expected of landlord and tenant.

We were all born with common sense and gut instinct. This can also be a valuable tool when deciding whether or not you want to rent to a prospective tenant. Trust your instincts.

Just keep in mind, experience is a good teacher but she charges too much. By networking your tenant rental experiences, sharing your tenant's rental history online with all landlords, and doing a complete background check on prospective tenants, you can always be a winner in the landlord business!