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when I call a previous landlord to verify a prospective tenant, how truthful do they have to be?
I always assumed that it would illegal to lie about a tenants history, but assuming is bad business, and I'll have none-of-that.
I generally go by the idea that you'll get the most truthful response out of the landlord previous to their current address. The logic behind this is that they already got-rid of these tenants, so they are not losing anything by being truthful.
I've never had this experience, but I imagine that if somebody has terrible tenants, giving a glowing review of them so they can get a new place doesn't seem too far fetched.. right?
Current landlords are the worst liars and in my experience will do just as you said - give the tenant from hell that they are trying to get rid of a glowing recommendation. It saves them the hassle and money of eviction.
Now the ones prior to that as you said are less likely to be out and out liars - unless the prospective tenant did something like rent from a brother-in-law and put the relative with a different last name down as a previous landlord.
I don't ask for references from previous LLs for that reason and don't even bother contacting anyone that the applicant puts down as a previous LL. I tried it when I started out and it was a complete waste of time.
A lot depends on whos being contacted. Our PMC limits their informations to:
1. Information about the lease information such as how long, when started, when ended etc.
2. Any verifiable and actionable complaints from other tenants. It had to be something the PMC had to get involved in to resolve. Even then they limit temselves to the facts not any judgement of the person or events.
3. Any issue related to the terms of the lease such as late payments, violations, evictions, etc. Again, its factual without any judgement or personal opinions. But they will explain any mitigating information, such as late payments due to serious health issues.
If a landlord has a tenant he wants to get rid of but can't legally, do you think he will lie on a verification to get them to move? Most likely, just saves time, the hassle, plus less hurt feelings
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