December 1st, 2013
With More Landlords Demanding Tenant Credit Checks Some Tenants Are Ready With Their Fraudulent Reports!
There are a lot of wonderful tenants out there.
No matter where you are in Ontario, landlords know that with an attractive property at the right price, and with proper tenant screening, you can find good tenants are there.
There are also not-so-good tenants as well.
These tenants can make a your life miserable and cost you a fortune.
These are tenants who lead many landlords to give up and sell their rental properties.
Smart Landlords Screen Tenants Carefully
More and more Ontario Landlords and landlords across the province are doing very careful tenant screening these days.
Landlords from Ottawa, Toronto and Scarborough know tenant screening is key.
This tenant screening approach always includes tenant credit checks.
Good Tenants Appreciate Professional Landlords
Most tenants are reasonable and will understand you want to know who you are renting to.
They will respect your screening process.
If your rental is a multi-unit property they will appreciate the time and effort you take to find their future neighbours.
If a potential tenant has bruised credit, it’s a chance for you to discuss it and still rent to them.
Some Tenants Are Adapting and Finding New Ways to Rip Off Small Landlords
Now let’s get back to those bad tenants.
The post on the Ontario Landlords Association forum was about a tenant who seemed to know more and more landlords were demanding tenant credit checks and was ready.
The post began with the landlord saying:
“I’ve been reading here for over a year when I started looking for my first investment property. I purchased a duplex and began looking for renters earlier this month.”
The Landlord had a couple who came to see the rental property and wanted to rent from him.
He said that the couple both came with letters of employment and offered them to him
One of the employment letters didn’t look real.
The interested tenants also offered an Equifax Tenant Credit Report
The interested tenant said she knew landlords wanted tenant credit reports.
She handed him a some papers saying this was proof she was financially responsible and a good tenant…and enough evidence the landlord should rent to them.
The Landlords describes what happened next:
“She spoke about how good her credit score was and that is important. She showed it to me and the score was over 720.
The problem…it didn’t have her name on it only the Equifax logo and the score.
Everything else looked like it can been covered and photocopied. No name, no anything except the logo and the score.”
The Landlord Didn’t Fall For It
“I told her I would do my own check once they filled out the application I downloaded here. You should have seen the look on their faces.
They took the application and haven’t emailed it to me or called back. These types of people are out there.”
We Called Our Partner Equifax Canada To Learn How To Deal With This And Protect Landlords
Paul Le Vevre is the Director of Operations for Equifax Canada.
Here Paul’s advice for landlords.
1.Credit Reports Always Have the Name and Address of the Person
Firstly, I can confirm that when a consumer either obtains a copy of their credit file (either on line or in person from Equifax), the file copy ALWAYS contains the name/address (plus date of birth and SIN if available) of the consumer.
Personal identification is an integral portion of the file, without exception.
2. Landlords Need To Do Their Own Credit Checks
The only method to ensure the credit file contains true/authentic data is to have the landlord access directly from Equifax (either the file or related products such as Tenant Selector).
Copies of files provided by the consumer are not to be considered valid due to the specific examples you cited.
Experienced Ontario landlords know tenant screening, including credit checks, are an essential part of their success.
Make sure you stay ahead of the game and in control by conducting your own credit checks and making sure you find the good tenants you and your rental property deserve.
