by Jane Skinner

Created on: May 09, 2010   Last Updated: May 11, 2010

As an attorney who specializes in unlawful detainers and litigation in cases involving real estate transactions, I can tell you first hand that there is a epidemic problem across the nation among landlords who are making life very difficult on themselves because an alarming number of property owners are not doing a sufficient job at investigating their prospective tenants with a tenant background check.

Recently I had a client who came to me regarding a very messy situation that he got into with a tenant who turned out to be a total scam artist.  With the permission of my client I am sharing this terrible experience.  This tenant, whom we will call Kathleen and was the CEO of the company, had come by the way of a referral from another trustworthy associate and this tenant needed 5,000 square feet of office space to lease as corporate headquarters for a nationwide company doing business in 27 states.  

My client was very impressed with the website of the company detailing their business operations as well as with several banking references which were provided which all check out ok.   The lease was for $7,000 per month. 

Without any tenant background check, my client made the decision to accept Kathleen's commercial real estate lease application without conducting a tenant background check on Kathleen or the corporation. 

Had she done a tenant background check as she should have, she would have discovered that Kathleen's credit was a total wreck with multiple outstanding judgments and 2 other pending court cases against her alleging fraud and a long list of collection activity against her. 

The corporation was suspended because of tax liens and multiple court judgments. All of this information would have clearly showed up in a good tenant screening background check.

Irregardless, Kathleen's company was accepted and within just 2 months, my client was already experiencing problems in receiving timely payments on her lease.  Initially, Kathleen apologetically used the excuse that she was out of the country in Europe on business and she was very sorry and she would make sure that a check gets sent out immediately.  

After my client waited for 3 weeks, she finally received a check but but this time, the next months rent was already due.   Kathleen continued to make every excuse in the book ranging from saying that she believed that her assistant had already paid the rent to becoming very sick and needing to be hospitalized.  Finally, my client had enough and she brought me the case.   By then, Kathleen's suspended corporation owed over $28,000 in past due rent. 

After I made my initial court filings to begin the eviction process, Kathleen's company filed a lawsuit on my client alleging asbestos exposure and contamination on the property.   This was obviously a frivolous lawsuit and only served as a distraction and to intimidate my client.  

However, I was ultimately successful in obtaining an eviction of Kathleen and her company and also was able to get her lawsuit dismissed.  But unfortunately, this entire experience has cost my client nearly $50,000 including attorney fees and court costs.   

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