No, there's no need to have us check it out for you.  It's a scam.  Never wire money to anyone that you don't know personally.  No matter how great that house seems, or how good a deal it sounds like, don't do it.  Just walk away.

One of the most important items is to meet the landlord personally, and ask for identification.  This will give you the assurance of knowing that the person with whom you are entering into a lease agreement is who they say they are.  If the property is handled by a property management company, ask them for the name of the landlord, and also check the Better Business Bureau for any complaints against the property management firm.

Realize that if an offer seems too good to be true, it usually is.  Rents that are far below market rate are a red flag that there may be fraud involved.

Talk to the neighbors.  Ask them if they know the landlord or if they know previous renters of the property.  See if they know of any issues.

Talk to the current tenants.  Ask them why they are moving out (if they are) and if there have been any problems with the landlord in the past.

There is currently no other service that we are aware of that provides the service for renters that we do.  There are a few sites that claim to offer similar services for free - however, the old adage applies - you get what you pay for.  We have found one site in particular which does not maintain their data, and may falsely lead you to believe that a property in not in foreclosure, when it in fact may be.  Click here to learn about some of these other sites, and why they don't compare to CheckYourLandlord.com.

Some of it, possibly, depending on the location of the property.

Some counties do offer property deed and foreclosure information for free online.  We encourage you to use these services if you are familiar with types of deeds and their meanings.  It is important to know what you are looking for, and how to interpret that information.  That is a service that we provide, that isn't available from a county website.

Many other jurisdictions do not have the information available online, or will charge a fee for it.  You may be able to get the information for free in these cases by visiting the county recorder's office in person.

The full depth of information available in our Comprehensive Landlord Verification Report is not available for free anywhere.  It involves a national data search, across thousands of jurisdictions, and includes court records of numerous types.

We do not maintain a property database.  Why?  Because we want to make sure that the data you receive is always as complete and up-to-date as possible.  When you request a report, we use that property information to begin a search for data on that property.  We don't rely on any data that might be outdated.  Think of it as the difference between ordering at a restaurant that prepares your food to order, and takes some time to do so, vs. one that keeps food sitting under heat lamps waiting for you to order it.  We prepare your report to order.

In the case of a pre-foreclosure report, you'll usually receive your report within 1 hour, any time of day.

A basic verification report can take a bit longer, up to 2 or 3 hours during business hours.

A comprehensive report involves significant analysis of multiple data sources.  We promise your report within 24 hours, but usually it will be ready within a few hours, during business hours.  When our staffing allows it, we offer rush services on comprehensive reports, guaranteeing a response with 6 business hours.

We believe that it is better to provide the best, most accurate information a bit slower, rather than instantly provide information that might be out-of-date or inaccurate.

Landlord fraud encompasses a variety of schemes in which a tenant or potential tenant could lose money without getting the promised rental property in return.   These schemes include the following:

1. A recent trend that has been widely reported has exposed con men locating and breaking into abandoned houses, advertising and showing properties to potential renters, and collecting a security deposit and one or more months rent.  Any lease contract provided to the tenant proves to be a worthless, fraudulent document.  The con man may run this fraud scam on multiple victims.  Con artists have even been seen setting up fake property management company websites for this purpose, as well as using the information gained from a lease application to commit identity theft against an unsuspecting victim.
    
2. A property owner nearing foreclosure rents his or her property to an unsuspecting tenant, collects a security deposit and rent, but does not use those funds to pay the mortgage.  The property goes into foreclosure and the tenant may face eviction, along with the likely loss of their full security deposit.  Of course, they will also incur additional moving costs.
    
3. A landlord collects personal, financial and confidential information from a tenant as part of the legitimate rental application process, and then uses that information to commit identity theft and apply for credit using the tenant’s identity.
    
4. A renter living in a property, who is about to move out or be evicted, poses as the property owner in order to collect upfront rent and security deposits, possibly from multiple victims, providing only a worthless, invalid lease agreement in return.

Possibly.  Current Federal law provides that a renter will be given a minimum of 90 days notice before eviction from a property that goes into foreclosure.  In some cases, the tenant will be permitted to stay in the property until the expiration of their current lease.  However, the law is ambiguous in many ways, and unfortunately the tenant may incur legal costs in order to ensure that their rights are enforced.  This law has not been tested extensively in the courts, and the application may vary across states due to differences in foreclosure procedures.  In many states, a landlord is not required to inform tenants that the property is subject to a foreclosure proceeding, even if the foreclosure proceedings began prior to the start of the lease.  Bottom line...the tenant needs to take it into their own hands to check the foreclosure status of the property before and during their rental term.

In most jurisdictions, you will have a valid claim against your landlord for the return of your security deposit.  However, it may be very difficult to collect.  The landlord may not have the funds to repay your security deposit, and you may incur legal costs in order to try to collect.

No one can ensure this, but we can arm you with the data needed to make the best rental decision possible and avoid risky situations.  For example, if your landlord defaults on the mortgage on the property after you have already signed the lease or taken occupancy, or if a notice of default had not yet been recorded at the time you purchased the CheckYourLandlord.com report, there still exists the possibility of foreclosure on the property before the end of your lease term.

Our basic reports, and our foreclosure monitoring service, will provide information on virtually any property, with the exception of co-ops.

Our comprehensive reports are appropriate for any rental property owned by a “private landlord” or “small landlord”, consisting of 8 or fewer commonly owned units, without corporate ownership.  This could include single-family homes, apartments, duplexes, condos, corporate rentals and even vacation homes.  Again, we may not be able to provide full information on co-ops.

If you have any question as to whether or not we recommend a report in your particular situation, please email us at support@checkyourlandlord.com.

We are generally unable to access foreclosure information on co-op properties, due to their ownership structure.

Our comprehensive report services would not be appropriate for properties such as large-scale apartment complexes, unless the units are individually owned condominiums.  Properties with more than 8 commonly owned units are more likely to be held within corporate entities.  As our comprehensive report provides information specific to individual owners, we would recommend our basic report and foreclosure monitoring in these situations.

If you have any question as to which report we would recommend in your particular situation, please email us at support@checkyourlandlord.com.

In some limited cases, information may not be available on a particular property.  If we are unable to locate enough information on a property to prepare a useful landlord verification report, we will credit your account or provide a refund.

There is no official or legal definition of these terms in the U.S.  In general, this means any landlord who owns one or more properties for rental personally, as opposed to a corporation in the business of owning and renting properties. 

No, at this time we provide information only for properties and landlords within the U.S.

Professional property management does not protect you from a landlord defaulting on his financial obligations regarding the property.  Your lease will generally be a contract between you and the landlord, not between you and the property management company.  The property management company should be able to provide you with information on the owner of the property, which you can then verify through CheckYourLandlord.com.

If the property managemer cannot or will not provide you with the ownership information, or if the property is owned by a corporation, we recommend our basic report and foreclosure monitoring, which will provide you with vital information on these properties at a lower cost than the comprehensive report, which is designed for investigating privately owned properties.

Absolutely.  We use SSL encryption to ensure that your payment details are safely transmitted directly to our payment processor.  We at CheckYourLandlord.com have no access to your credit card data, and we do not store it in any way.  We also offer payment through your Paypal account, and can accept your credit card information over the phone rather than online if you wish by calling us at (855) CHECK-11.

Absolutely.  Give us a call toll-free at (855) CHECK-11.