Prospective tenants claiming their landlords are selling

[Rick Bassett]

As of late, there seems to be a bumper crop of prospective tenants claiming that their reason for seeking a new rental unit is that their landlord is selling the property. Yet, the number of houses coming on the market in our area doesn't seem to match the volume of these claims. Also, a good number of these prospective tenants (not all though) are currently living in hotels.

Given the number of times that we have heard this over the past 30 - 60 days, we started wondering if the real reason has more to do with the recent ending of the eviction moratorium catching up with non-paying tenants. It is difficult to know for sure as landlords weren't able to file the typical eviction paperwork with the courts over the past 16-18 months that would normally be our source of public records.

We are now considering asking for proof of the last 2 - 3 months' rent payment (their rent receipts) when these red flags come up. Is anyone else doing this?