Tenant moved in so-called sister and left

[Tapiwa Wakatama]

While setting up a preventive maintenance appointment in early March, the tenant calls me and says 'my sister has been living there and paying rent. I moved out.' She asked if her so called sister can take over when the lease ends 5/31/21. Being put in a tight spot and considering payments have been coming in I said OK, but she needs to be screened.

I setup the preventive maintenance appointment with the sister after getting her number. I confirmed the date and time I'd be there and she agreed. She wasn't there when I showed up so I sent a text to the sister and said I'm going to enter. She says fine. I go in there and there were about three youths. I was with my maintenance guy.

I found three immediate lease violations (besides the sister living there without permission): heavy smoke odor in the garage, pet, and changed lock. The sister calls while I'm there and claims she forgot about the appointment... she's at work. I told her I'll email here preventive maintenance report. Her response was to provide excuses regarding the lease violations.

My second email explained she needs to be screened/ approved before signing a new lease. I also included a screen criteria document and told her to let me know if there are any questions.

We finally met face to face after her making excuses to cancel two or more appointment. She said she read most of the requirements and understands. I even went through the document while I was there. 

I sent her a link to the online application around mid March. She asked me to resend it about a week later, so I emailed another one. Then I began following up consistently through April and she seemed nonchalant about it. I finally said we'll begin looking at other candidates if you don't apply.

She told me her sister let her move in several months ago and said I can take over the lease. I'm like I don't what you all talked about, but it's not her decision. To make a long story short, the back and forth continued and her dad even got involved.

She started claiming that the application was already complete. I said no and provided her screenshots showing her incomplete status. I told her to contact the screening company. It turns out she created an owner account instead of a renter account. She and the dad were trying to create a lease, lol. The company basically you can't do that.

I gave her one deadline that she missed. She and the father threatened me with a lawyer. So I called an attorney who advised me to give them three more days (today is the deadline) or tell them to plan on leaving June 1st.

She finally got the screening company to submit the application for her. It was ridiculous! She uploaded her and the dad's license having the same address. She used that as the current address where she's renting since 2014 and the reason for leaving is that the owner sold it. She included the supposed owner's name.

Now I already Googled her when she showed me her license in early March and know that's her dad's house. So I look up the public record and see it was last sold in 2002. Also, I looked up the so-called owner on Facebook. It's her dad's brother's wife. There were other red flags too like an uploaded bank statement from January 2021 and a yearly income not meeting a minimum 2x requirement (that I already mentioned to her).

I sent a text yesterday when this was all going on and said you may want to modify this before you review because it won't pass. What does she say about the current address? 'Oh yeah that is my dad's house.'

Keep in mind she has until today to get screened. She calls the screening company last night for help initiating the background check. But she has a credit freeze so it can't be done... and she couldn't answer the ID questions to bypass it. So she needs to take another ID quiz. I kind of suspect this is a delay tactic to avoid screening for some reason.

Anyway, if tomorrow comes and I don't see any alerts from today regarding a proper application and screening report, she's not signing a new lease.

I'm wondering if I should offer cash for keys to leave one week after May 5th or just start the eviction process naming her and leasee?