Scammers lurk in the background of virtually every industry, and the multifamily sector is no exception. Some renters will leap at the chance to exploit loopholes in the system and take advantage of unprepared landlords. “As a baseline definition, we classify rent fraud as any act of intentional deception by a renter to deceive the property owners to gain financial or personal benefit,” says Josh Albrechtsen, senior vice president and general manager of front office solutions at RealPage. “Fraud is evolving constantly. This is not a one-and-done problem solve. The trends and behaviors of the fraudsters indicate an ongoing chess match.” Unfortunately, renter fraud is increasingly common. In January, the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) released the results of a fraud survey, which collected responses from 75 property owners, developers and managers. A whopping 93 percent of survey respondents stated that they had experienced fraud over the past 12 months. Additionally, 71 percent of respondents had encountered increased fraud activity in the last year. Snappt, which specializes in assisting apartment property managers with document fraud detection, reported that of the nearly 3.3 million application documents its platform scanned in 2023, approximately 177,000 were fraudulent. That represents an average fraud rate …
