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General Landlording & Rental Properties

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John Teachout
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Concord, GA
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Scammed by identity of new tenant

John Teachout
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Concord, GA
Posted Sep 8 2020, 07:22

This is a new one to us. We just rented a new to us house. The person filled out the application and I ran a full background check on them. Credit and employment history came back positive. I called the listed previous landlord, etc. So right after they moved in there were some mechanical issues with the unit (Air conditioner and the water heater quit heating) I was there working on the property and the tenant's group drove off to visit someone and shortly thereafter the police showed up. They asked for "Jane Doe" and I said, she doesn't live here, that's her daughter. The officer said this was the second time they've been at the property and the person by that name said she had just moved in. Anyway, we started putting a few clues together and best I can tell, the daughter used her mother's credentials to qualify for the property. I'm not really sure how to proceed from here. She's fully moved in. I'm thinking we have a few different options. 1. Tell her to get a truck and immediately vacate the house. 2. Have HER fill out an application, run it and then make a decision. 3. Have whoever we thought she was co-sign for the property and let her stay. (that would be after she completed an application). I'm really upset about this situation and the fact that we've been scammed by this person. We looked back to see what we could have done differently and there are a few minor things but we basically followed our usually vetting process. We believe the mother was cooperating in the fraud.

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