Dipshit Landlord Makes a Family Homeless

If your landlord kinda looks like a junkie, it might not be wise to fork over a deposit check

Two sets of tenants trying to move into the same house in Kensington results in an arrest.

What’s even better:   This guy has done this before.

Renting Tip:   Because there’s not that much the City will do to stop landlords like this, it behooves you to do a landlord background check.    You can do it for free.

First:   Check the taxes on ZBABot, here ->  http://www.zbabot.com   Scroll to the bottom, type in the address and click “Search by Address”.   If the house you’re going to rent owes any back tax, highlighted in red… RUN AWAY.   If you already wrote the check, go to the bank and stop payment.

Go to http://fjdclaims.phila.gov to check Municipal Court activity on your landlord.    You can do this by clicking Logon as a Public User.  Then, click Search.   You don’t need to change the settings except to change the search type to “Defendant” and search your landlord’s name.   If you see the City of Philadelphia repeatedly suing your landlord, you need to start your apartment search all over again.

PRO-TIP:  If your house is owned by an limited partnership or a corporation, you need to search both the landlord’s name if you can get it from the landlord’s agent, and you need to also search the name of the limited partnership.   When the City sues a landlord it usually sues the entity that owns the actual property.

Also, search the landlord as a Plaintiff as well.   Look at the landlord-tenant disputes your landlord has been involved in and how the cases were handled.

If you search Municipal Court on Daniel Douglas, you will find this:

Here is where Daniel fucked over another tenant

And looks like Daniel fucked over a contractor, too