Given last Friday’s episode with Daniel Douglas, it pays to repeat this advice that I have been giving out for many years: Do a background check on the landlord before you sign anything, especially a deposit check.
Landlords do background searches and check credit. It’s also a must that renters in Philadelphia do the same with landlords given that the City of Philadelphia has a poor history of removing bad landlords from the rental market.
Here is how you do a background check on a landlord, and it costs you nothing. Bookmark that link.
Trust me, it will save you tons of aggravation and lost money down the road if you avoid problematic landlords who have a poor track record keeping their property taxes up to date, or fail to respond to L&I violations which result in the City of Philadelphia suing the property owner. Usually for bad landlords: multiple times.
