Tenant Verification Services provides landlords and property managers with a variety of screening options. Select a market to sign up or learn more.
Landlord Facing Class-Action Lawsuit Over Late Fees A major corporate landlord will have to answer for a late-fee policy that tenants say is illegal. According to a report, the landlord owns 82,500 single-family units nationwide, making it the country's largest...
Landlords in Bellingham, Washington and Boulder, Colorado are among the more recent to be confronted with new rental laws that require them to accept housing vouchers, including federal programs like Section 8. While landlord participation in voucher programs is...
An Oregon jury has awarded a tenant over $20 million after he fell through a catwalk that connected two buildings in an apartment complex. Nearly the entire award is for punitive damages. The verdict was entered against the owners and managers of a 600-unit apartment...
While paperwork is never the best part of any job, when it comes to property management, it is a necessary evil. Tenant files are used for: Screening tenants; Day-to-day management; Evictions; Winning tenant disputes; Debt collection; and Sale or financing of the...
Tenancy agreements can be complicated. Toss in local tenancy laws and individual landlord policies, and things can get downright confusing. Unfortunately, misconceptions about the lease may lead to a false sense of security and, ultimately, to income loss. Don't be...
Some landlords rely on eviction laws as a safety net to stave off income loss. Unfortunately, that net is full of holes: Not every problem tenant can be evicted. A British Columbia landlord recently discovered that she could not quickly evict a tenant for paying late...
The Toronto Star Newspapers Limited has won a legal victory in its bid to gain more transparency in Ontario tribunals, including the Landlord and Tenant Board. The court ruling resolves a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of tribunals that withhold records...
Attracting the right tenants improves short-term cash flow. It also enhances the value of the rental property in the long term. It's a given that a landlord wants tenants who not only pay rent, but also care for the property. The best tenants, in turn, want a property...
Nightmare tenants don't start out that way. They seem nice -- at first. Before they stop paying rent or start making threats. It's extremely difficult to flag someone who is being dishonest, especially in the 45 minutes to an hour that a landlord typically spends with...
A lease agreement is a powerful tool, but when it comes to managing rental properties, the lease can't do it all: The lease can't prevent tenants from paying late -- at least not alone. Standard lease agreements provide a due date, along with a grace period -- usually...
Small landlords in Seattle are taking on the city's new tenant screening restrictions, one ordinance at a time. In March, a court handed landlords a victory by declaring the city's first-in-time ordinance unconstitutional. Now, the Pacific Legal Foundation has filed a...
A 67-year-old woman will continue to reside in a two-bedroom New York City apartment at the rate of $100 a month, after a housing court ruling recognizing her adoption by the former tenant one month before he died. The woman, who previously lived in another unit in...
It seems every time you read a newspaper there's another story about a tenant who trashed a rental property. And it seems that behind every landlord nightmare story, there's a manipulative tenant -- someone who pretended to be qualified, then stopped paying rent and...
A New Brunswick landlord finds himself advocating for a change in rental laws after tenants wrecked his property in under two months. According to a news report, the tenants told the sympathetic landlord that they were struggling financially and couldn't afford to...
Imagine if every applicant who applied for your vacancies was qualified. Tenant screening would be a breeze! Unfortunately, landlords don't have it so easy. A high volume of calls from interested applicants doesn't make it any easier to choose the right one. What does...
A full review of British Columbia's residential tenancy laws is underway. Premier Horgan has appointed a Rental Housing Task Force to recommend changes to the current rules. “Our laws haven’t kept up with the changing housing market, and that has left both renters and...
The majority of small or do-it-yourself landlords are risking income loss from ineffective leasing policies, according to a study conducted by Real Property Management, the nation's largest property management franchise. The study, implemented by Liminality, Inc. of...
Last year, Seattle's City Council passed an ordinance that required landlords there to establish minimum qualifications, to advertise those minimum standards, and then accept the first minimally qualified applicant. Dubbed the "first-in-time" rule, the ordinance...
Already slammed with allegations over misuse of private information, Facebook now must confront another legal challenge, this time over allegedly discriminatory policies involving rental housing ads. Four fair housing advocates have filed a federal lawsuit against the...
South Dakota lawmakers have passed a new measure designed to discourage renters from passing off pets as companion animals. The state is one of more than a dozen -- most recently Colorado, Massachusetts and Virginia -- to tackle the problem of fraudulent service...
