I have a tenant that I had to legally evict. There is a date set by which the local sheriff’s department will come and forcibly evict her. Once she is out, I want to pursue charging her with providing a false credit report, as I am very certain she had provided one. The real estate broker who screened her showed me the credit report, which looked flawless with a 741 credit rating. When trouble escalated during the eviction process, I ran a criminal report and found a recent bankruptcy. How is that possible with excellent credit? Once my tenant is out, I want to press charges against her, but don’t know how to prove she falsified her records. Any advice on this subject would be most appreciated. 

Why?  What is there to gain?

What do you hope to get by charging her with a false credit report?  Your broker missed the bankruptcy and that should have been reflected in her credit score.  I can't see any one going from paying their bills to bankruptcy in a short period of time, usually there is a history of missed payments. 

One way to avoid it in the future is to not let the tenant provide their own report but to run it yourself (or have PM do it if using one).

Yes you should run the credit report and not accept a copy from someone else.

I would let it go. You will be throwing good money after bad. You will never get any money out of her.

@DB OBrien What do you mean provided a false report? YOU/ PM co runs it so how can it be fake ? If you/ PM did not run it, well, 1st mistake, learn and move on 

PM did run it, it looked immaculate, hence my question as to whether it was legitimate. How can someone have a great credit rating/report just prior to declaring bankruptcy? 

Thanks John, I won a judgement in which my tenant’s wages will be garnished to pay me back what I’m owed (we’ll see). Because there seems to be no ill effects (for her) to the damage she has done to me (as unpaid rent does not show up on credit reports), I’m trying to find a way for her bad behavior to show up elsewhere to prevent others from falling into the same trap as I did...I consider it community service :)

Originally posted by @DB OBrien :

PM did run it, it looked immaculate, hence my question as to whether it was legitimate. How can someone have a great credit rating/report just prior to declaring bankruptcy? 

 If PM ran the report the tenant did nothing wrong...well except the whole not paying rent thing, but that's a separate issue.

Sadly, the report run by PM was not thorough. After the eviction process stated I ran a background check and the bankruptcy came up, it must have been too new to show up on the credit report (I’m assuming, as it occurred just a month before the lease was signed). My point of my post is, if the credit report was falsified, isn’t that fraud? Can I have her charged with committing this fraud? I’m trying to legally make her life uncomfortable...

If she has the eviction on record and the bankruptcy, she's going to have problems anyhow.  

It is probably fraud falsifying her credit report.  Your PM should have run his own check and not relied on the info she gave him and that should be your bigger concern going forward as they will be placing the next tenant.

Originally posted by @DB OBrien :

Sadly, the report run by PM was not thorough. After the eviction process stated I ran a background check and the bankruptcy came up, it must have been too new to show up on the credit report (I’m assuming, as it occurred just a month before the lease was signed). My point of my post is, if the credit report was falsified, isn’t that fraud? Can I have her charged with committing this fraud? I’m trying to legally make her life uncomfortable...

 So you want revenge

Revenge seems a bit harsh, but yes, I’m sure anyone that has lost almost $10k by playing by the rules and the legal eviction process would be angry...my goal now is to make sure she can’t rent from anyone else as she is providing false info to gain tenancy elsewhere. If anyone has legal ways to attain this goal, please share. 

DB OBrien

replied about 1 hour ago

You: Sadly, the report run by PM was not thorough. After the eviction process stated I ran a background check and the bankruptcy came up, it must have been too new to show up on the credit report (I’m assuming, as it occurred just a month before the lease was signed). My point of my post is, if the credit report was falsified, isn’t that fraud? Can I have her charged with committing this fraud? I’m trying to legally make her life uncomfortable...

Not necessarily.  I can think of at least two scenarios that explain it away.  One, their name was commingled with one similar or the same, and that is the credit report your PM found.  They may be a victim of identity theft.  It doesn't always show up right away.  

Secondly, once had a friend that was stabbed in the back by a business partner and had an 850 credit score when they filed bankruptcy.  It isn't necessarily fraud.  Check with an attorney but, it would only be ID theft or fraud if they presented a credit report that wasn't theirs. 

Thirdly, nobody asked, but I will state here. It is okay for someone to print out their own credit report and give to a landlord.  Because if you pull it, it is a hard hit and depending on their goals in life (college, need student loans, new baby on the way, anticipating needing a new car), then a hard hit impacts them for a long time.  Thus harming the prospective tenant. And frankly, unless someone is a bank or a court order, nobody should give out their EIN unless you can guarantee me AND accept liability for lack of competent record retention, putting me at risk of ID theft.  One in 4 ppl now have been a victim. I don't give mine out except to regulated institutions - period.  No matter who you say you are.  A copy is sufficient - or show the letterhead version to the landlord.  

It sounds like this might be your first bad experience and you're letting it consume you. The former resident now has an eviction on their rental history and will more than likely have a difficult time finding a property management team that will approve her. My suggestion would be to take a deep breath and let it go. No sense in throwing more money at it when you claim to have lost 10k already. This is the negative side to rental investing. Hope your next tenant is great! 

Don't even waste a second on it. Take that time and look for other ways to make money. 

Originally posted by @DB OBrien :

Revenge seems a bit harsh, but yes, I’m sure anyone that has lost almost $10k by playing by the rules and the legal eviction process would be angry...my goal now is to make sure she can’t rent from anyone else as she is providing false info to gain tenancy elsewhere. If anyone has legal ways to attain this goal, please share. 

 How did you lose $10k that was directly attributable to her false credit report. 

Originally posted by @Karen Orr :

DB OBrien

replied about 1 hour ago

Thirdly, nobody asked, but I will state here. It is okay for someone to print out their own credit report and give to a landlord.  Because if you pull it, it is a hard hit and depending on their goals in life (college, need student loans, new baby on the way, anticipating needing a new car), then a hard hit impacts them for a long time.  Thus harming the prospective tenant. And frankly, unless someone is a bank or a court order, nobody should give out their EIN unless you can guarantee me AND accept liability for lack of competent record retention, putting me at risk of ID theft.  One in 4 ppl now have been a victim. I don't give mine out except to regulated institutions - period.  No matter who you say you are.  A copy is sufficient - or show the letterhead version to the landlord.  

This is just not true any longer.  The difference for a soft vs hard credit hit is simply whether the tenant was involved with the pull of credit.  So sites like cozy or trans union or the like where the tenant supplies the information to the credit company directly is a soft credit report but provides the same information. 

If a tenant brought me copies of their credit report I would hand them back to them with an unless they do it my way aren’t going to be renting one of my units. 

So your worry about record keeping seems unfounded.  You don’t have to provide a SSN to a landlord to run credit.  I just need proof that who’s credit is run is who is standing in front of me. Which a Drivers License or government issued ID would do for me.  There’s other ways to verify who someone is on top of that. 

The more I think of someone handing me a copy of their credit report the funny it sounds to me.  I’d have to contain my laughter as I sent them packing.  

Originally posted by @DB OBrien :

I have a tenant that I had to legally evict. There is a date set by which the local sheriff’s department will come and forcibly evict her. Once she is out, I want to pursue charging her with providing a false credit report, as I am very certain she had provided one. The real estate broker who screened her showed me the credit report, which looked flawless with a 741 credit rating. When trouble escalated during the eviction process, I ran a criminal report and found a recent bankruptcy. How is that possible with excellent credit? Once my tenant is out, I want to press charges against her, but don’t know how to prove she falsified her records. Any advice on this subject would be most appreciated. 

Look at your PMs process and don’t worry about the tenant.  You are wasting brain cells on something that should no longer concern you. No matter how much it burns you up inside. The sooner you can remove them from your memory the better. Live and learn. 

Originally posted by @DB OBrien :

Sadly, the report run by PM was not thorough. After the eviction process stated I ran a background check and the bankruptcy came up, it must have been too new to show up on the credit report (I’m assuming, as it occurred just a month before the lease was signed). My point of my post is, if the credit report was falsified, isn’t that fraud? Can I have her charged with committing this fraud? I’m trying to legally make her life uncomfortable...

How in the world could the tenant have falsified a credit report that she didn’t provide? Your PM ran the report, I’m assuming through a credit bureau or a company that accessed the information directly from a credit bureau. How exactly would it be the tenant’s fault, much less fraud, if something was missed during the screening process?

Next time, I’d suggest doing a thorough background check before renting to someone, not after the eviction process starts. 

@DB OBrien how does one change what it on the credit agencies  reports ?  If she is gone you are wasting to much energy on this. replace them and move on. 

Thanks everyone that offered your advice. I will let this go. The point of my post was to see if there was a way to find out if the tenant had falsified her credit report somehow, but I see now, that was most likely not possible to do, unless she is using someone else's SSN. Life is short, I am not going to waste any more of mine on this loser. Good day all!