All Forum Posts by: Theresa Wang

I also recommend talking to your lawyer. You may have to wait until the coronavirus shutdowns are over but if they are not honoring the lease contract by not paying rent, you have the right to evict them. Is the agent you're talking about serving as your property manager? Or are they just the tenant's agent? Unless you have a property manager, it's the landlord's job to verify all information and run background checks. 

@Theresa Wang Get a better agent.  That is not acceptable. Even with minimum due diligence, you can figure out if something is fake or not. 

Yes it is a crime but you might have to wait till everything gets up and running again before you can evict. Sorry for your situation. 

I'm confused, did you have your agent handle the rental or did you accept paperwork from the tenants agent?

If you had your agent handle the rental and they didn't verify any of the paperwork or employment, I'd be asking the agent to cover all my losses. 

If you took paperwork from the tenants agent and that agent didn't verify them, you're screwed. It was on you to verify the information was accurate.

Was it a crime to forge documents? Probably, but police aren't going to take a report and no DA will care. 

LL have to be on the lookout for fake docs all the time. The majority of tenants are fine people; but the pros are getting really slick, the Internet and tenant activists will test us all. @Theresa Wang I suggest you hire a lawyer. You definitely have grounds to get the tenant out.

Sorry to hear this happened to you. It’s really bad timing too. Unfortunately a landlord doesn’t get to just terminate a lease because they (or their agent) did a poor job screening the tenant.

Not paying the rent is definitely grounds to evict. However, in your county and state (like many places across the country right now), there’s currently a moratorium on evictions.

I’m sure this “professional tenant” knows that and is going to take full advantage. So until that’s lifted, you’re likely stuck with them for a while.

Good luck and hope it works out. (And don’t have your agent do any more tenant screenings for you.)