Renters are conning their way into luxury apartments as landlords are seeing a jump in rental application fraud, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal.
The Journal reports that Atlanta is at the center of the national surge in rental application fraud.
Greystar, one of the country’s largest landlords, says fraudulent applications are a real problem.
Toni Eubanks, Greystar’s managing director of property management, said in an interview recently with Bisnow that in some markets 50% of their applications are fraud.
“What we’re faced with as an industry is fraud. We’re finding it particularly prevalent in certain markets. In some of our markets, 50% of our applicants are fraudulent applicants. It’s our responsibility to catch those, you know, so that we can avoid that kind of disruption at the community level, for the owner and team members. We’re trying to stay very on top of that,” Eubanks told Bisnow.
The National Multifamily Housing Council says a survey it did showed owners reported a 40% increase in rental application and payment fraud.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Atlanta has a large number of high-end apartments for rent and that social media is spreading word about these listings.
“Influencers on Tik Tok say renters can boost their chances of getting approved by fudging financial information on their applications,” the Journal reports. The newspaper also said there are promoted ads that sell fake application packages and more.
“It is becoming a bigger and bigger problem coast to coast,” said Damon McCall, chief executive of ApproveShield, a fraud-detection software company for property managers, to the Wall Street Journal.
Leasing fraud appears to be a fairly widespread issue. According to a 2024 study by RealPage and Dimensional Research that looked at 400 property managers in the country’s largest metros, 75% of them reported experiencing an increase in fraudulent applications.
Read the full story in the Wall Street Journal here.
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