Identity theft and property manager responsibility

[Seby T.]

Hello,

I am based in CA and have property in Daytona Beach, FL which was managed by a reputed property management company in Orlando, with glowing online reviews and markets themselves as using NASA technology for property management. They rented my property to a tenant and after one month, the tenant stopped paying, COVID hit and took an year to evict, property damages and loss of $20k +. Filed a court case for recovering rent and damages and the "tenant" showed up for the hearing saying she was a victim of identity theft and has never rented the property or lived there. What are my options here ? Isn't the property manager responsible for verifying the identity and doing proper credit check ? Should I file case against the property management company ?

[Theresa Harris]

The PM should have checked.   Was there anything in the unit to suggest someone else was living there (or the real name of the person they rented to)?