Hello BP members, it has come to my attention that the tenant who I'm trying to evict for non-payment is possibly a totally different person. How I found out is during my attempt to offer a solution on paying rent using money order since the tenant had their ACH bounced twice on Apartments.com. I offered a temporary solution of asking to have rent Zelle'd to me, but upon clicking on the tenant's Zelle profile through my bank app, it was listed under a totally different person's name. I decided to dig farther, I went back and pulled up their report along with the provided bank statement and one of the account which was listed under a business name I inputted into INBiz and the registered agent for the business belong to the same name listed on the Zelle profile and the address on the bank statement also matched the registered business address. The lease that I had the tenant sign is to the tenant who applied. I feel so stupid for missing this detail when I screened the tenant. I don't know what I should do, since the tenant who I'm trying to evict may not be who they are.
Just start eviction and the order will say any and all occupants. You’re in Indiana it should all be pretty fast.
That's my plan, already posted the 10 day notice on the 13th, now I just need to wait it out, this will be my very first time having to evict someone. So I hope the process goes smoothly.
I would imagine that this will all 'come out in the wash', as they say. Once they get into court this should come right up, and they will not be looking good.
Interesting world isn't it? Don't beat yourself up too badly, a lot of us wouldn't have caught that. I guess you can't be too careful nowadays, eh?
That’s a tough situation, but don’t beat yourself up—these things happen. Since the lease is with the person who applied, you may have grounds for a fraudulent application or unauthorized occupancy claim. I’d recommend consulting a local attorney ASAP to ensure your eviction follows the correct legal path, especially if the actual occupant isn’t the named tenant. In the meantime, document everything and avoid direct confrontations. You’re already doing the right thing by digging into this!