Source
r/Landlord•
p_mud

Landlord setup CreditKarma account in renters name using landlords email. Is this ok?

A friend of mine tried to create a CreditKarma account today and it turns out that his landlord created an account for him using their email address and are monitoring his credit. Is this allowed or even legal?

He didn't even know he had an account and of course doesn't have a password because they created it.

I have 5 rental houses and have never even thought of monitoring my tenants credits.

EDIT/FOLLOW-UP: Thanks everyone for your unanimous feedback on this. He talked to the landlord and they gave him the password so he could take control of the account. Even though there is no excuse for what they did he's giving them the benefit of doubt because english is their second language and he thinks they didn't understand what they are doing. Hopefully after explaining it to them (assuming they understood him) they won't do it again.

Posted Dec 9, 2016, 5:07 PM UTC · edited

1114
giveitago•

Absolutely not legal. Contact credit karma. Also contact a lawyer about identity theft. As I understand it, credit karma will ask a lot of questions to verify identity so I guess the landlord asked those on the application. If this were me I wouldn't leave it alone I would contact a lawyer to see if it were possible to put the screws to the landlord so I could profit in some way. Absolutely not okay when they are fairly easy legal ways to accomplish the same thing.

19
Ceeeceeeceee•

Agreed, this is 100% illegal. Even services like beenverified are not supposed to be used for landlord tenant checks. This is so much worse, and amounts to identity fraud. Here is CreditKarma's TOS with their email info. There is also a phone number somewhere on the site. I've used it to report identity fraud and have them investigate it, I would advise your friend to do the same.

https://www.creditkarma.com/about/terms

5
Ceeeceeeceee•

Btw, The CEO of creditkarma was just on r/IAmA a few hours ago answering questions. You could probably still catch him and ask him personally.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5ha7sg/im_kenneth_lin_founder_and_ceo_of_credit_karma/?st=IWIGQ9H7&sh=ccfb7dbb

3
minze•

no way. the landlord was trying to cheap out and get around running a real credit check on your friend. I'd guess that there's some "check here" box where the person signing up for the credit karma account asserts they are the person they say they are. I'd think fraud and/or identity theft could be at play here. Lawyer up!

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akmalhot•

I don't even understand that, its not expensive to run a credit and criminal history report

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giveitago•

OP, give us update, also post to r/legaladvice.

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p_mudOP•

Thanks for the feedback!!! I updated the post with a follow-up. He gave them the benefit of doubt and they gave him the account password immediately.

1
MadelineTT•

Everyone posting is totally correct. This is illegal. Landlords area allowed to buy credit checks on prospective tenants but they are paid for and consented to. Sites like CreditKarma only report to first person users because of the private verification data required and because individuals only have the right to their own score for free.

(Disclosure: Madeline is a rental expert for TurboTenant.com)

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Chortle_Monkey•

Madeline your "disclosure" is a thinly-veiled advertisement. Please remove it.

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addywootAL | SFH•

u/MadelineTT is a valuable and contributing member of this subreddit. Your opinion holds no weight.

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giveitago•

Commenter is absolutely right. Could just designate a generic company and if anyone is interested could PM. Nobody said the comment wasn't valuable. That's not what's being asked to be removed.

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arposey•

Madeline is an obnoxious spammer who needs to go away. There is no value in the contributions of a spammer. They are being paid to contribute and therefore none of their suggestions can be viewed as legitimate. Every single comment is designed to force usage of their product. If her company wants to advertise they can buy an ad on reddit where I can hide it with my adblocker. I will never use her company's products and because of her spamming this subreddit I tell everyone I know to avoid her company.

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addywootAL | SFH•

u/minze- while I have opinions on this, I'm not a mod. If you want to weigh in, tagging you for awareness.

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MadelineTT•

Thanks! Just trying to be forthright about my title and affiliation for conflicts of interest :/

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