Validation of previous landlord

[Vivek Kumar]

Often times when reviewing a application I want to check previous rental history and ask applicant the name of previous landlord. 

i then usually check that with county tax records. Recently I have found almost all the cases where the owner name in county record is different from what applicant stated. 

this made me wonder if my assumption that name should match in county records is valid?

fyi. I make sure to ask that the person applicant gives me is the owner not the property manager 

[Michael Smythe]

@Vivek Kumar it is a valid concern!

Many applicants with under 600 FICO scores will fraudulently give a family member or friend as their "landlord". 

Many also do it to hide that they are currently being evicted.

ALWAYS check public records to find the owner per deed transfer. You can try tax records, but in Michigan, many new owners don't do that. 

If the owner is an LLC, you can try to check online Corporate records to see who the agent for the LCL is and their address. Many DIY landlord use their own names & addresses. You can search the address in Google maps to see if business or residential.

Once you have a person's name, you can try to use WhitePages to look up their phone number.

We also use the name or LLC to trip up the "landlord" when we call. We ask the person who the real owner is and if they are not correct, ask them who they are in relation to the applicant.

Good luck!

[Adam Bartomeo]

Even if they give you the right name, they can still give you their friends number to call. Its better if you get a property managers phone number because you can cross reference that with what is listed on their website. 

[Theresa Harris]

I'd also add when talking to their landlord to make a deliberate error with the house number or street name.  If they are the real owner, they should catch it while a fake reference may not.  also when checking employment history-get the number off a website (or phone book), don't use the number they gave you.

[Christopher Berra]

Quote from @Theresa Harris:

I'd also add when talking to their landlord to make a deliberate error with the house number or street name.  If they are the real owner, they should catch it while a fake reference may not.  also when checking employment history-get the number off a website (or phone book), don't use the number they gave you.

 Look at you Theresa!!! I love that.