Which is worse: Bad Renters or Bad Landlords?
Have you seen this Web site, DoNotRentTo.com? As it says, it was created to determine whether a potential tenant is suitable to rent to. The site allows landlords to pre-screen candidates for late payments, non-payment of rent, destruction of property, theft, failure to vacate, and a host of other issues that unruly renters can pose.
It's a member-only site, but from what I can gather, it allows landlords to search a database for a tenant they're considering renting to or post comments on tenants they have rented to.
Now, I can sort of see why something like this might be necessary. I'm sure landlords have had to deal with some pretty ridiculously bad tenants and they want to avoid them like the plague so they won't lose money or have their property destroyed or damaged. However, I have major concerns about this.
First, it seems awfully one-sided. Landlords can post anything about bad tenants, but there's no way to verify any of it. If you're a tenant who is listed unfairly, how do you fight that? How do you know a landlord who screwed you over isn't posting inaccurate information about you?
Even worse, landlords are encouraged to post
really sensitive personal data about tenants like your driver's license, Social Security Number(!), and comments and photos about the alleged bad behavior that the tenant engaged in while renting from the landlord. The SSN and driver's license number isn't required, but it's encouraged to properly pinpoint the wickedexact tenant, the site says.
Wow. Wow. Wow. Is it just me or is that scary? It doesn't end there. All that sensitive and possibly false information is then available to all members to access. Members can download and print all that information on you, too, if you happen to be one of the tenants targeted on this Web site.
Now, I'm not saying there isn't a need for something like this. Like I said, I've known plenty of bad renters before. I've seen really bad situations where renters took advantage of and damaged property.
But the flip side of that is that I've also known and written about some bad landlords. I had a skeevy landlord once who would drop by unannounced. He never took care of the yard, letting the grass grow knee-high. When I gave him notice that I was moving on since my year lease was up and I was on a month-to-month basis, he swiped my deposit by claiming that I damaged his oven (Anyone who knows me knows I've only ever used an oven a handful of times in my life. Sheesh.) The guy was a first-class jerk and I walked away from it without a fight because I was young and naive. Now. I'd rip him a new one.
It just makes me wonder, though, would he post a comment on this site about me that was entirely untrue? If I were still a renter, would that potentially blackball me? How do they verify any of this information? Does this site do background checks on landlords who are members? Are there any security measures in place to make sure bad landlords, or any old person, can't just access all this sensitive data since it only costs $14.99 for a one year membership? Maybe I'm missing something, but it's all very troubling to me. I'm going to try to contact this site to see if they have any answers to my questions.
Stay tuned.
A native of Vietnam, 
Comments
There definitely should be a DoNotRentFROM.com, as I have had some rather awful landlords in the past and present. Renters definitely deserve to know what they're getting into as much as the reverse is true.
DD: Evan, I couldn't agree with you more.
Posted by: Evan | February 14, 2008 12:06 PM
Feel free to start a DoNOTRentFrom.com if you have the motivation and are so inclined. I see nothing wrong with landlords trying to protect themselves from tenants from hell (and I speak as a tenant). Landlords are encumbered by a ridiculous number of rules and regulations that tilt the playing fields towards tenants, they should be able to protect themselves and each other.
Posted by: Michael_C | March 3, 2008 12:44 PM
There are some legal issues I am concerned with. If anyone can join and pretend to be a landlord, then people's identity can be stolen, credit ruined, etc. Who assumes liability for this?
Posted by: Wanda | March 3, 2008 1:04 PM
There are several sites, easily found in Google, that allow tenants to rate their apartments and the management of the property.
Unfortunately, I'm guessing sites for either community --- either landlords or tenants --- are likely to skew negative, because people are probably most motivated to post when they have had a problem.
Posted by: Liz Kay | March 3, 2008 1:50 PM
There a website for tenants to post about their landlords * BADLANDLORDS.INFO
Posted by: W. Gibson | March 3, 2008 9:25 PM
I wish there was a place to warn people off of some landlords. My current landlord is awful, and I would hate for anyone else to have to deal with what myself and my partner have for the last ten months. Thank God we had to forsight to do a month to month lease, and are moving at the end of this month. Something like losing my deposit for a false accusation of breaking an oven sounds wonderful to me. We've had to deal with SO many issue's, not the least of which is having to replace all our furniture because the house is infested with bed bugs, when we move, so as not to take them with us to our new home. If anyone knows of a site that will allow me to warn people, please let me know.
Posted by: Heather Stewart | July 14, 2008 4:26 PM