by Paul Willis

An applicant seemed to have everything she needed to qualify for an apartment, but something felt a bit off to Richard Grover. The paystubs submitted by the applicant appeared authentic, identifying a reputable online pet retailer as the employer and easily surpassing the income threshold needed to qualify for a home. 

“After a day and a half, I finally figured it out,” says Grover, Senior Vice President of Compliance for Richman Property Services. “They looked like legit paystubs—they looked pretty darn good—but the applicant missed one item. All the check numbers were the same.”

With that, Grover and the Richman team were able to short-circuit an income-based fraud attempt, one of many the apartment world endures daily. Applicants have several creative means to inflate their actual income—or understate it in some cases—in an attempt to beat the system and qualify for an apartment home. These fraudsters, naturally, are the most likely to default on a rental agreement and lead to costly, time-consuming evictions. 

Read Paul Willis’ article in UNITS Magazine.