All Forum Posts by: Ariel O.

@Cliff Odom and @Steve Rozenberg

Just an FYI if you're pulling background/credit, not denying but changing what the actual rent is, you need to send out an FCRA adverse action letter.

Here's an example from the FTC:

https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/gu...

I don't make the rules, I just try and save people from annoying lawsuits :/

@Kenneth Davis

It's a good idea, the question is how do you do it in the context of FHA? Requires some thinking:-)

@Mitch Dowler

 Good thing it wasn't in CA, you can't screen against illegals there.

@Anthony Simboli

I love @Marcia Maynard's documents - highly recommended:-)

@Paul A.

Whole thing sounds mildly fishy.. Ask for the docs the PM got when they did screening.

@Account Closed

If you don't want liability worries, don't be a landlord.

You still haven't answered my question about where you find MD eviction records online. Would be very helpful to all the MD landlords here.

@Wayne Smith

You're also looking for evictions, too :-) Or if they just like to litigate.

@Wayne Smith

I would supplement the Smart Move search with a quick glance at the Harris County Clerk site here to check for evictions in civil cases and any criminal cases, assuming your tenants have always lived locally. http://www.hcdistrictclerk.com/Edocs/Public/search...

@Account Closed

There is the FTC disposal rule, but the very short version for a small landlord would be "Shred when you're done."https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/gu...

There's also the GLB act and the FTC act, but again, these are more on the screening companies then yourself.

What is even weirder is that there ARE laws related to data breaches. So they don't care how you store it, but then have legislated what to do when you're hacked.

@Account Closed

Please ask your wife where she looks, I would like to be enlightened.

I also find it funny that you say 

And yet in your first post you want to go over and look at their current living quarters. Which one is more invasive? 

How do you know you're seeing all of the bank statements? Outflow does not equal debt. What if I'm servicing $35,000 of credit card debt by paying the monthly minimum? You would never know. What if I get paid in all cash? 

I note that you're in Maryland; many states do not give the same protections in terms of tenancy that states like NY,FL,CA and to a lesser extent your state do. 

In terms of rights and responsibilities, of course there are responsibilities that come along with viewing credit reports or any other sort of information. It's called the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and it requires that you get tenant consent and notify them if you plan not on renting to them because of something in their report ("Adverse Action"). It also places certain responsibilities on the tenant screening company, but that's not germane to the discussion here.

Finally, you say you are a landlord, not a creditor and talk about loaning vs tenancy.

To which I would say two things:

1. The whole point of going through the screening process and including credit reports is to prevent you from becoming a creditor/judgment holder of your tenant.

2. If you give a product or service to someone on installment payments or any sort of deferred payment system, then it's some sort of loan. We may not treat renting as that in a legal capacity, but how is it different then DirectTV or cellular service? You provide the service upfront and expect to get paid down the road. If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, chances are, it's a duck.

@Account Closed

When you're a small landlord it probably makes sense to screen civil, criminal yourself, if you can.  You're looking for civil records in Maryland, correct?  Guess what: Landlord/Tenant records aren't online! [http://www.courts.state.md.us/casesearch2/faq.html]

What happens when you have an out of state tenant, then what do you do?

How do "make sure they are who they say they are?"

I 100% disagree on the credit report. I think the score can be confusing, but the actual report is a gold mine:

• Does the applicant pay his bills? How often does he miss payments?
• Is the applicant over leveraged?
• Has the applicant ever had serious collection issues? Why?
• Bankruptcies? 

These kind of things directly impact the ability of a tenant to pay your rent, which is your #1 concern. As a landlord you have EVERY Right to view this info. You're essentially giving someone complete access to a valuable asset on a monthly payment plan. Why wouldn't you want to know everything about them?

What I've discovered is that generally, the landlords who advocate omitting things from a screening haven't had to evict someone yet. Once that happens the tune changes.