London property manager flags uptick in false documents in tenant applications

In tight market, property manager says tenants need to have accurate documents at the ready.

As the owner of a London, Ont., property management firm, a big part of Michelle Teichroeb’s job is screening the information submitted in tenant applications.

Teichroeb, of Harrison Carter Group, will typically charge a landlord the equivalent of one month’s rent to comb through the documents to verify tenants’ income, rental history, credit history and character references.

She’s there as a gatekeeper to ensure the documents prospective tenants submit are legitimate but said increasingly, they aren’t.

“We’ve seen faked employment, doctored pay stubs and most recently, false bank statements,” said Teichroeb, who’s been in the business for 25 years.

She said she began to notice an increase in fudged documents about 10 years ago, a time when London’s rental market began to tighten considerably. While a low vacancy rate benefits landlords, allowing them to be more picky, it also increases the competition tenants face in the application process.

Teichroeb showed CBC News a recent tenant application — with the applicant’s name redacted — which she did not recommend for tenancy. Among the documents submitted were months of what appeared to be complete and accurate bank account statements from CIBC. They showed money going out for various purchases and expenses, but also listed what at first glance appeared to be regular payments from an employer.

Statement fudged

However, Teichroeb noticed the payroll deposits were always in suspiciously even amounts, such as $2,000. The deposit amounts were also not consistent in the amount or day deposited. Stranger still, the amounts listed under the statement’s “deposit” column didn’t change the overall total amount of funds in the account.

Teichroeb believes the applicant dropped in false deposit entries into an otherwise legitimate bank statement.

Verifying income is a crucial part of screening tenant applications because non-payment of rent is a top reason for landlord-initiated evictions at Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB).

“Your risk significantly goes up if you don’t have a qualified tenant,” she said. “If they’re not qualified to pay for something, their risk of non-payment is huge.”

And while false documents may put landlords at risk, those who work for tenants say applicants are discouraged when faced with intense competition for every decent apartment listed.

Kristie Pagniello is a lawyer and executive director with Neighbourhood Legal Services London and Middlesex. She encourages landlords to do their due diligence in screening applications and for tenants to supply thorough, accurate documents.

“This is all part of the larger housing crisis, where people get desperate and need a place to live,” said Pagniello. “At the end of the day, it’s really the landlord that can do their due diligence and they have pretty wide powers to do that with credit checks and if they do that, they should be able to get a good tenant.”

Incomplete documents can hurt renters’ chances

Teichroeb encourages tenants to be upfront about what’s in their application and said getting caught trying to hide something is often worse than the blemish itself.

“Things happen to people all the time, bankruptcies and consolidations, and that’s not necessarily a black mark but if you don’t tell me that ahead of time, you’re probably going to be disqualified,” she said.

She also encourages people to be organized and thorough when they submit their applications.

A past landlord listed as a reference who doesn’t answer the phone, a missing or out-of-date rental payment history or a driver’s licence number that doesn’t verify can all add up to question marks that will hurt the applicant.

“You’d be surprised how many people are just not prepared when they go out looking,” she said. “They don’t show up on time, they don’t take off their shoes at a showing. If we don’t have all your documents in 48 hours, we move on.

“We’re looking for good, proven fiscal history and patterns,” she said. “It’s not about a credit score, it’s not about how much you make, but what are the proven factors that show us you have the ability to pay rent.”