Is the landlord actually the landlord.

[RentMaster]

I am investigating a potential tenant.

I have the name and phone of their current landlord. The written reference was good, and the verbal one was also good. However I have also found out that the current landlord works at the same place as one of the people who want to rent my place. So I am not sure if the landlord is genuine or just a friend who is giving a good reference.

Is there an easy way to find out if this person actually owns this house or not? It is in Mt Albert Auckland.

Thanks in advance.

[revdev]

Hi Andrew,

To quote Glenn from another thread;

One simple free check I do is enter the given landlord name into Terranet. This then throws up the street name where the landlord owns the property. No match and alarm bells ring. Perhaps the given landlord happens to be a friend of the tenant.
It is possible to do further digging before ringing the "name" to make sure you are onto the genuine oil.

G

[NESW]

Interesting that you raise this point RM, our rentals are currently managed by a property manager, a new tenant family that we now have, we are told by neighbours, were thrown out of a home in the local village after they let the property slide into disrepair and left it a complete mess.
Yet credit and landlord references are spot on...leaves the managing agent and ourselves scratching our heads as to who to believe....

[Enlightened]

Hi RentMaster

Yes, there is a simple way to know if the person own the property.

Get a valuation of the propery (qv online) and the report will list the current owner.

https://www.qv.co.nz/freereport/

All the best.

E

[xris]

Hi RentMaster

Yes, there is a simple way to know if the person own the property.

Get a valuation of the propery (qv online) and the report will list the current owner.

https://www.qv.co.nz/freereport/

All the best.

E

E,

You call that simple?

xris

[Gypsygirl]

If it is listed in a company name, you will have to do a bit more digging.

[RentMaster]

Thanks revdev and Enlightened for those links.

Today has been a good day, because I have learnt something new, and it isn't even 9am. Isn't it good when people on this forum help each other, the way it was intended.

NESW
It is hard to pick the perfect tenant. You can do all the checks you like, but that does not guarantee a good tenant. It just reduces the chances of picking the wrong one. Good luck.

[Glenn]

I must admit that recently I have dealt with a few really bad tenants that had perfect credit reports.
In one case the tenant signed on as Ross Taylor.
His mother tells me she calls him David Taylor and there were mail items at the flat addressed to David McBain (his mothers surname). The police records left a the flat were in the name of Ross Taylor.
So yes having multiple names is a problem. Surprising as it may seem having multiple names is not unlawful.
The other big issue is that hardly any landlords are logging tenancy debts with Baycorp (guilty as self accused). This is why it is essentual to track down the real owner / manager of the previous tenancy.
Just look carefully at the previous three addresses that get thrown up on Baycorp credit reports.

[Cassandra]

Hi Glenn

Interesting that you say about non -de-plumes or aliases not being unlawful. But it must be unlawful for a person to mislead & fraudulently pose as an "imposter" landlord and/or write references as an imposter landlord?

[NESW]

To take that one step further, I am aware of a tenant in NZ, who after filing for bankrupcy, legally changed her name and told her bankrupcy case manager.
Two years later it still appears as her first name at the time...not as her current name.
If your bankrupcy people are not going to keep their records up to date, how is anyone else supposed to?

[xris]

Hi Glenn

Interesting that you say about non -de-plumes or aliases not being unlawful. But it must be unlawful for a person to mislead & fraudulently pose as an "imposter" landlord and/or write references as an imposter landlord?

Yes, this is all quite interesting and is a line I can't recall having been followed before. I cannot really contribute much on the subject because I do not know the in's and out's of it.

Howevr, in reply to Cassandra's point that it is illegal to pose as somebody you are not in giving a reference to a new landlord, I think the following line might apply.

Mr old landlord (or mr good friend of the tenant) and mr new landlord meet and mr old landlord hands over to mr new landlord a written refence about the tenant, addressed to mr new landlord and signed by mr old landlord as John Smith. Mr new landlord acts on it and suffers a loss.

Mr old landlord has committed an offence and mr new landlord has a claim against him.




Mr old landlord (or tenant's good friend) writes a reference addressed to 'whom it may concern' and signs it as John Smith and hands it to the tenant.

The tenant hands it to mr new landlord who acts on it and suffers a loss. Mr old landlord has not committeed an offence and mr new landlord has no claim against him. Mr new landlord may have a case against the tenant though depending on the circumstances.

What I occassionally do is hand a reference to an old tenant and addressed to that tenant, and then say 'do what you want with it'. As far as I am concerned that is me out of the picture. I have not given any other person a refernce about that tenant.

xris

[Glenn]

On the question of AKA Baycorp will link the names for you. So when you do a check there will be a special note on the file. I have even seen notes to the affect that the party uses more than one date of birth. Now hows that for devious.
As far as I am aware using more than one name is not frowned on by the courts. Several times I have asked for the both names to be recorded on judgements. I think I get about 50% strike rate on that issue.
Goodness with so many people with more than one name no wonder there are so many mixed up people out there in the rotten world.
Perhaps it is time I got into a new line of business dealing with honest people. Does anyone know of a good business to get into that always deals with nice honest clients.

[Perry]

Does anyone know of a good business to get into
that always deals with nice, honest clients?

Yes!

Printing communist-coloured (embarrassed) cards that say:

My Commitment to You!

[Perry]

Aliases - lawful or unlawful

Akin to Xris, I'm unsure of the legislation involved, but my
understanding is that an alias (Also Known As)
becomes unlawful when it's used to deceive, or to
misrepresent someone in a way that the user of the alias
gains an advantage that would be precluded if the real
name / identity was used.

[xris]

Akin to Xris, I'm unsure of the legislation involved, but my
understanding is that an alias (Also Known As)
becomes unlawful when it's used to deceive, or to
misrepresent someone in a way that the user of the alias
gains an advantage that would be precluded if the real
name / identity was used.

Yes, I agree with Perry. This is the line of my thinking too - intent!

xris