A lot of other management companies are no longer allowing their employees to complete rental verifications

Hi everyone!
Our company has noticed that a lot of other management companies are no longer allowing their employees to complete rental verifications for a past or current resident that lived in their community. Does anyone know why this is? Is it just out of fear that someone may provide too much info to avoid a lawsuit??
We’ve had a few applicants recently that are teetering on the edge of our requirements and the rental verification would be super helpful for us to make a more informed decision.
TIA!!

It’s so frustrating!

Properties are being sold left and right. When a new company takes over the software does not look back farther than takeover. Documents should still be onsite for 7-10 years, but no one wants to go look through them and so they just say they can't verify.

You can always just ask the applicant for a ledger showing their payment history.

If they were borderline, I would probably deny them. I’ve reached out to managers before and just asked would you rent to them again or not? It’s really frustrating that companies expect you to verify but they won’t do the same.

If they can provide a final account statement aka SODA and there is no landlord debt I will allow that

I've seen this quite often.....
"If I tell you they are trouble and about to be evicted, you won't approve them and I will have to pay court eviction costs!".......

A lot of companies are investing in systems/CRMs that don’t require anything outside of screening prospects. Some of theses systems are super sophisticated. This is helpful for streamlining processes and reducing fair housing violations. (I’m sure several other perks too, but those are my top two)
Hope this helps!

We have had a few evictions and part of the stipulation from the tenants counsel has been to not provide those details, so we use "Unable to disclose" but not by our normal practice.

A lot of management companies are now reporting to credit bureaus so you should be able to see rental history in a credit report. However, I've noticed that rental verifications are becoming "old school" as it was explained to me. You can always have the applicant request a copy of their full ledger and put the responsibility on them instead of another company/leasing agent.

I don't understand it either. I could care less about a credit score, if rental is good. They have their priorities straight if they pay their rent on time and let their credit go. But it is becoming more and more difficult to get rental verifications, especially when so many properties don't even answer the phone anymore.

Our company does not allow us to give any negative information. I can’t say they left without notice or they owe us money. I can simply say that they lived there and the dates. I can’t even tell you if I will lease to them again or not.

I have found when pressed, they owe a balance. The courts are inhospitable at best in regards to unpaid rents and resident lease violations with the landlords left to do whatever to be done with the situation.
I find company policy is dates of residency and maybe rental rate

It would be breaking Fair Housing if you didn’t require the same rental verification for “everyone”… As long as you use the same form requiring the same information, you would be fine.

What our lawyer said was, "You have no legal obligation to respond to any inquiries about tenants. In order to avoid the unlikely possibility of defamation claims by former tenants, I encourage a policy that limits responses to inquiring prospective landlords to:
1. that the tenants was a resident at your property;
2. the dates of residency;
3. whether rent was timely paid; and
4. whether the tenant was evicted.
The truth of all these facts are easily confirmable from the tenant file.
All other inquiries should be ignored. It can be explained that it is [the company's] policy to limit information to the above listed information."

We just look for two questions to be answered on our sheet: "Would you (if they qualified) rent to this person again," and "Did they leave any damages?" Everything else is gravy. Or icing. I don't know what kind of food additive, but it's extra that would be nice but not essential.