Rental Application Scams

​I guess anyone who works with the general public sees the good and the bad. We certainly do. The first and most important part of screening a rental application is doing some research to look for mistruths, fabrications, and outright lies.


Fortunately, most people applying for rental properties are not professional identity thieves. When it comes to experienced identity thieves, there's not much that can be done. Their ability to obtain fake ID's and social security numbers makes them very hard to catch. But the common renter hasn't invested thousands of dollars into their application fraud. They just hope we won't pay close enough attention.


As someone who has been leasing and managing properties in Atlanta for nearly seven years, I have seen a lot of attempts at deceit. As a Realtor, I have tools that in many cases can allow me to catch the lies.


I guess the first question that should be asked is why people feel the need to lie on their application. They are usually trying to hide something. They know their landlord will give them a bad report. Or they worry that a criminal background will automatically disqualify them (which it does not). Or they think the leasing agent won't notice an eviction from 2 years ago.


Here is a rundown of the common types of deception we see on applications.



There are four main things we look for when screening applications: employment/income, rental history, credit history, and criminal background.


Many people applying for a rental home have a bad rental history. Maybe they left trash and personal belongings at their last residence and the owner had to pay for junk removal. Maybe they damaged a previous rental home severely. Perhaps they were late every month with rent and missed a few months.


The common scam? List a friend or relative as the "landlord." We see this quite often. Fortunately, as Realtors, we have easy access to tax records and Property Title databases. And we know other Real Estate Brokerages and Property Management Companies.


Just this morning (Monday, I usually write the report on Monday and send out on Tuesday), I caught someone doing this very thing. Checking the tax record and calling a Realtor who listed the home for sale in March 2023 provided more than enough evidence of fraud in the application.


What the applicant hopes will happen is that we will simply ask the person they listed as the landlord if they were good renters, paid their rent on time and took good care of the premises. Of course the best friend or cousin or sister will email back a glowing report—that is completely counterfeit!


The same scam sometimes works with the contact listed for the employer. It may be a friend or relative. Or possibly they may list a colleague at the business who is not their actual supervisor.


Then there are the "emotional support animals." As a Realtor, I support accommodations for people with disabilities. The laws about emotional support animals are well-intended and serve a good purpose—to allow people with anxiety, depression, OCD, and similar illnesses to have a physician-approved support animal and prevent discrimination by landlords.


But . . . this has become an easy opportunity for a scam by renters. There are websites that advertise, "Tired of Paying Pet Fees and Deposits?" They advertise a simple service, providing "emotional support animal" documentation to renters for a small fee.


Because of the law, we can't always prevent a scammer from succeeding at this. But usually we can. We use a third-party service to verify vet records and all documentation with animals and pets (two different categories under the law). Many renters do not want that level of scrutiny and give up.


Finally, there is another way we catch people in their deceit and that is called the Credit Report. There are things a person can easily hide and there are embarrassing facts that are not so easily swept under the carpet.


Deceitful information can be found on a surprisingly high percentage of applications (we don't track this in our system, but it would be interesting). Fraud is common enough that our standard "denial of application" letter has a checkbox for "Inadequate or Untruthful Information Provided by Applicant."


So be careful out there and let us know if there's anything we can do for you today.