Want to know what a future resident will be like as a tenant? Ask their previous landlords. An applicant’s rental history is like their renter resume—helping you predict their behavior as a tenant at your property.

And rental verification is the process of confirming that their resume’s accurate. It involves contacting past landlords and confirming information with other documents, like lease agreements and bank statements. 

An accurate rental history can reveal warning signs like lease violations, apartment hopping, and professional renters. It can also answer important questions like, “Does the tenant tend to pay their rent on time and in full?” and, “When they move out, do they leave behind a damaged and dirty unit?” 

Unfortunately, you can’t always take rental history and landlord references at face value. If you do, you might unwittingly sign a lease with a bad tenant. And the stakes are high—unreliable renters can lead to missed rent payments, property damage, and drawn-out evictions. 

Before signing on the dotted line, take a deep dive into a renter’s history and look closely for these red flags. 

Quick Insights

• Rental history is a summary of previous tenancies and includes where an applicant lived, for how long, and who their landlord was.
• Rental history can also include important details like rent payments, lease violations, and evictions.
• Rental verification gives property managers an important opportunity to review an applicant’s past as a renter—a good predictor of their future behavior.
• Some applicants may resort to fraud in their rental history, like submitting falsified lease agreements or rental ledgers. They may even provide fake landlord references.
• The best way to protect yourself, your business, and your property is by knowing what to look for during rental verification.
• If you do spot red flags, always ask for clarification. Applicants are often able to provide a reasonable explanation with supporting documentation.
• Follow the same rental verification process for each applicant to avoid accusations of housing discrimination. Use consistent, objective criteria when approving or denying a tenant.

10+ Red Flags to Look Out for in Rental Verification

A prospective resident has given you their rental history, and now it’s your job to verify it. Rental application scammers are betting that you’re in a rush and won’t dig too deep. Which might make you wonder, “Can I trust what the applicant has written? Have they left out any important details?”

Would-be fraudsters might gloss over issues, like:

• Late or partial rent payments
• Large security deposit deductions 
• Notices to cure or quit 
• Disputes with their landlords
• Breaking the lease or moving out early

So when you’re checking renter references, here are some indicators that your applicant may have a less-than-stellar rental history. 

1. Ghost Landlords

Contacting past landlords is the most straightforward way to verify rental history. The problem? The contact listed on the application may not even be a real person.  

An applicant may put down a fake name and hope you won’t go further than a quick phone call. They’ll ask a friend or family member to pose as the landlord, who’ll give a glowing (and totally inaccurate) review. 

Ghost landlords’ contact details are often the first sign of fraud. The contact email might end with @gmail.com or @yahoo.com instead of a company domain. Or when you try to independently search for the landlord’s information or property records online, you get suspiciously few results. 

Keep in mind, though, some small landlords with one or two units may use their personal email for business. If you do see a personal email address, ask the landlord for documentation about the rental and a copy of the lease agreement. If the landlord refuses, check county property records. 

Ghost landlords might become more obvious when sharing their reviews. They may give generic, vague answers or be unable or unwilling to provide basic details about rent amount, payments, or security deposits.

In some cases, family members do act as landlords for relatives. If your applicant rented from a family member and you’re not sure the landlord is being objective, consider using additional data points like employer references to get a better picture of the applicant’s reliability. 

2. Doctored Rental Ledgers or Lease Agreements

Would-be fraudsters want to look credible, and they might submit official-looking documents to bolster their claims. 

For example, an applicant might provide a lease agreement as proof of address. Or to prove rental payment history, they may submit a rental ledger, complete with a list of in-full, on-time payments. 

But most documents—including lease agreements and rent ledgers—are easy to fake with online templates and photo editing software. 

So how do you know if you’re looking at a forgery or the real deal? Altered documents, like leases and rental ledgers, may have tell-tale signs of forgery, like: 

Inconsistent formatting. Landlords often use lease templates with standard formatting, so look for misaligned columns or out-of-place fonts.

Typos. Lease agreements are legal documents, and landlords often proofread their template for grammar and spelling. Grammatical or punctuation issues are suspicious.

Blurry signatures or logos. Images and signatures on a document should be crystal-clear. Any fuzziness or pixelation might mean you’re looking at a cobbled-together document.

Mismatching data. Cross-reference addresses and names across all the documents you’ve compiled, including driver’s licenses and credit reports.

If you’ve received rent payment data from a reporting bureau, you can compare payment data between the ledger and the rental history report. 

Pro tip: Detecting document fraud takes an expert eye and a lot of patience. Loop in a rental verification tool like Snappt to catch fakes quickly and with higher accuracy. 

3. “Landlord” Can’t Confirm Basic Details

A real landlord should be able to answer basic questions about rent amount, payment history, tenancy dates, and property details. If they dodge your questions or provide vague, scripted answers, they likely never interacted with your applicant—or they’re a ghost landlord. 

Sometimes, this scenario may not be a red flag. Multifamily properties do change ownership and management, and the new landlord may not have easy access to previous tenant data. In these cases, use other landlord or employer references if available. 

4. Tenant has No Rental History—or Gaps They Can’t Explain

Think of a tenant’s rental history as their renter resume. Just as you’d be concerned about a short employment history or gaps between jobs, be wary if an applicant has long gaps between tenancies or a short rental history with few (or no) references. 

When you ask for clarification, you might get non-specific answers about living with friends or family for extended periods. Couch surfing might be difficult to confirm, and if you have only one landlord reference to go on, it could be impossible to get a clear picture of past tenancies.

But some strong applicants, like recent college grads or immigrants, may not have a robust rental history. And life events, like job loss or divorce, might lead to gaps. So give prospective residents a chance to fill in the gaps. 

If you’re looking at a short or choppy rental history, use other parts of tenant screening—like background checks and employment verification—to help you get a better sense of reliability and income stability. 

If you’re looking at a short or choppy rental history, use other parts of tenant screening, like background checks and employment verification, to help you get a better sense of reliability and income stability. 

5. Prior Evictions (Even if They Didn’t Result in a Judgment)

Prior evictions are a big red flag. An eviction means a tenant-landlord dispute has deteriorated to the point of a lawsuit. Even if it was dropped, settled, or found in the tenant’s favor, an eviction filing can be predictive of future issues. 

The fact that the issue led to a court case calls for more digging. After all, most landlords avoid expensive evictions at all costs. Usually, they’ll turn to other tools first, like a notice to cure or quit before going the legal route. 

A tenant may claim that they’ve never been evicted, but landlords (and court records) may say otherwise. Unfortunately, evictions don’t show on credit reports. Evictions can appear on rental history reports from reporting bureaus, but this information might be limited, especially if there wasn’t a judgment in the case.

Because third-party reports might be incomplete, speaking to landlords is crucial to learn about issues that might not appear on the written record. 

A word of caution: Malicious evictions can happen, so give the applicant a chance to tell their side of the story. If you can, search for public records in the case’s jurisdiction to get a more objective perspective. 

The bottom line? If you see an eviction, tread carefully. Consider the frequency and recency of past eviction cases, and look to credit reports, background checks, and employment history to get a better picture of the applicant’s behavior and reliability.

6. Frequent Moves or Short-Term Tenancies

Most lease agreements are for at least a year—a healthy rental history will reflect that, showing someone living at the same address for a year or more. Tenancies of less than a year could point to issues like: 

• Breaking the lease and moving out early 
• Inability to pay rent 
• Problems with maintaining stable housing

Breaking a lease early can happen for a variety of reasons, including relocating for work or purchasing a home. But if you see multiple short tenancies, investigate further. Apartment hoppers might cut out on you, leaving you with unpaid rent and bad debt. 

7. Late or Partial Rent Payments

Checking rent payments is a critical part of rental verification. Past payment behavior is the most reliable predictor of future payment behavior.

Ask landlords questions like “How many times were payments late?” and “Did you have to apply late fees consistently?” to get a clear picture of whether an applicant will be a reliable tenant who pays rent on time.

Use rental ledgers, third-party rental history reports, and landlord references to see how often rent payments were on time and in full. Unlike evictions, unpaid rent in collections does show on credit reports—and can reveal late loan or credit card payments. 

8. Lease Violations or Notices to Cure

Lease agreements are legally binding, and landlords and tenants are responsible for following a lease’s terms. Tenants may violate a lease by: 

• Keeping an authorized pet 
• Hosting a long-term, unlisted guest 
• Triggering noise complaints from neighbors
• Damaging property

Look for written warnings or lease violation notices, and ask past landlords for details about any violations. Check for things like the types of violations, steps the landlord took to notify the tenant of the issue, and how they resolved the problem.

And pay extra close attention if the violation occurred more than once or if the landlord had to issue a notice to cure.

9. Deposit Deductions for Damage or Cleaning

Large security deposit deductions might point to a tenant leaving the unit dirty and damaged. If you learn of a deduction greater than a couple hundred dollars, get as many details as you can from the landlord, like an itemized breakdown and photos of the unit on move-out.

Pay special attention to a pattern of large deductions—this could suggest issues with unit maintenance and care, which could create a less-than-desirable community and cost you big (depending on the level of damage). 

10. Tenant Pushes Back Against Verification 

Good tenants generally don’t have any issue being transparent and sharing landlord references. If they refuse to give contact information or insist you only contact one reference, be cautious. The applicant may be trying to hide previous disputes, evictions, or simply a negative track record. 

In some cases, tenants may have a legitimate reason to fear contact, including cases of abuse or retaliation. But these instances should be the exception. If a tenant claims they had “issues” with all previous landlords, chances are it’s the tenant who was the problem, not the landlord.

11. Mismatched Documents and Application Info

Prospective residents should share verifiable tenancy dates, rent amounts, addresses, and landlord information. Compare this to other documents they submitted during tenant screening, like:

• Pay stubs
• Previous leases
• Tax returns

For example, the rental history may claim the tenant lived at one address in 2024, but their 2024 tax returns list a completely different address. 

If you see inconsistencies, you may be looking at altered documents, or the tenant may be misrepresenting their history. 

Bonus Red Flag: “Too Perfect” Rental Verification

No one’s perfect, so a flawless landlord reference might be surprising—and a little suspicious. Tread carefully if a landlord’s review seems inauthentic:

• Scripted or stilted 
• Completely positive with no negatives
• Generic without specifics 
• Written in overly formal language 

Reviews like these could be totally fabricated or from a template. Or the applicant may have coached the landlord on what to say. 

How to Respond When You Spot a Red Flag 

If a rental history includes one or more of these red flags, don’t immediately deny the application. Clarification or documentation may explain renting gaps, late rent payments, or mismatched application data. 

If you have concerns, reach out to the applicant and explain what you found. Ask if they can provide an explanation and supporting documents. For example, if you ask about late rent payments, the applicant might say they were unemployed during that time—but they’re now caught up with a steady, verifiable income. 

Remember to view the rental history as one part of an applicant’s story. Consider other parts of your screening process to look for green flags, like a high credit score, stable income, and a clean background check. 

Throughout the process, don’t forget about fair housing compliance. Apply consistent criteria to each application, and ask every landlord the same set of questions. Never ask about protected characteristics such as age, race, or national origin. 

Protect yourself from accusations of discrimination by: 

• Writing down your application process, including rental verification
• Reviewing your process and criteria with each applicant 
• Getting written consent from applicants before running rental history reports or contacting landlords 
• Documenting and saving all interactions with both applicants and landlords 

If you do need to reject an application, share a written adverse action notice with proper documentation and objective reasons for the rejection.

The Right Questions—and Tools—Will Help You Spot Risk Early

Rental verification is an important step in tenant screening, but it’s only useful when you know what to look for. A careful screening process will catch the red flags now—saving you months of expensive tenant issues later on. 

Manual review is a must-have step for catching tenant scams, but your eyes alone can’t always catch fraud. With AI, fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated, churning out authentic-looking documents in minutes for as little as $15.  

As the landscape evolves, a multi-layer fraud detection strategy is a must. Combining manual verification with automated tools provides robust fraud detection that can protect your business from fraud fallout.