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Updated over 6 years ago, 04/24/2018
Tenants financial documents, references, are false. what can i do
Hello, my realtor found a tenant for me who appeared to have high income and great references. come to find out that all are falsified. she stated she worked for a government agency and that was false, reason I know is I found her on facebook and she is self employed - WITH BAD REVIEWS AND ONE OF THEM WANTS TO SERVE HER - YIKES, I can also see who she used as references, which are her FACEBOOK FRIENDS -NOT HER EMPLOYER. she was a little bit hostile when I asked her to provide renters insurance for her dogs and said she would not do it, although she apparently makes $400k a year - realllllyyyy??? she listed on her lease agreement she had one small service dog, which was OK with me until I went to the house and realized she had two dogs, untrained, so I am sure none are service animals. I feel really uneasy about this and spoke with a PM that I just hired. he says there is not much I can do since I have a legally binding contract. he believes I should just ride it out, meaning collect rent and see what happens, if she doesn't pay we can evict. the lease agreement is for 2 years and I'm very concerned. I know I need to calm down but I am angry at my realtor because she didn't get CDL or SSN card or credit report, (the tenant provided the credit report), and I am angry at myself. should I just ride it out? Also she pays with money orders (from Ralphs grocery store) which is suspect to me. why would someone making 400k use money orders for rent. this is a SFR in a very nice neighborhood in S.California., I would like to move into the property myself and get her out. I don't want to bribe her with thousands of bucks if I can help it. My gut screamed no to this lady, but my realtor thought she was great based on her docs and references. please don't tell me I am a fool because I am sooooo already aware of that. I can't begin to tell you how stupid I feel especially when my gut was screaming no! thank you everyone for reading, any answers would be greatly appreciated.
just wanted to add this for landlords as something to watch for.
the reason that I had doubts about this tenant is because the income level and lifestyle didn't jive. i know the guys reading this will scratch their heads, but there is truth in this. here are reasons I was suspect of this tenant:
teenage kids all had bad, uncut, unshaven hair, and clothes looked like Walmart status - remember, this is S. Ca. - doesn't jive
she arrived to see the property in an Uber, a small compact car with her 3 big kids
she owns a 2012 Toyota, that's it
her furniture didn't look very nice, cheap, and hardly any, she has boxes of junk though.
she let me know she was going to do the landscape (pick weeds), - how many people making that much money are out there picking weeds, btw, weeds still there. I'm not talking gardening here, weed pulling. this is a high income community and it's hot. Everyone in the area uses gardeners. People making that kind of money are very very busy and let someone else handle the "small stuff".
there's more but I can't think of it right now.
again any ideas on how to get her out are appreciated.