I am attempting to move into an apartment and the property managers wish to verify my employment and salary. My company (a large corporation) requires us to go through an outsourced company for verification. The property managers can go through a web site or a toll free number to call – however there is a $12 fee for doing so. There is no alternate means for me to verify that I am employed with this company (at least according to the corporate website, and my management).
I am concerned that I may be declined the apartment because they do not wish to pay the fee. I could ask them if I could pay but I am already paying $25 to apply.
Well, since it’s just $12, if I really wanted the apartment I’d go ahead and fork it over. I might try and see if they’ll let it apply towards the application fee, or perhaps the first month’s rent.
In any case, you won’t know unless you pick up the phone and talk to them.
Good advice, guys, but let’s try to keep this GQ – as in, does an employer have any obligation to confirm that an employee does work for them without charging a fee? If the company charged me $5 or $500, is this legal?
I’ll take one in, but when I told them about my company’s rules, they stated that they normally fax the company with a form. I explained to them that my company wouldn’t respond to that, but that I’d get them directions for our method. The person was pretty confused and noncommittal about it.
I used to work for a company that also outsourced ‘employment verification’ for loans, rentals etc… If I recall correctly, the basic “yes this person is employed here” was free, but the additional info of “since X date at Y dollars” was an additional fee.
As an HR person I can confirm that charging for this type of verification is a common practice. Verifying the credit worthiness of potential customers is a cost of doing business for the lender, lessor, etc. If they need to charge an application fee to recoup their costs then so be it. If the OPs leasing agent was unfamiliar with this, I expect she was new.
When you look at this from the perspective of a large employer, they may literally need to have multiple people on staff just to do verifications for current employees and retirees. I was once in the fun position of doing about 20 hrs. per week of verifications myself. Some organizations (assisted living) would verify income on a monthly or quarterly basis, even on people who had a fixed pension annuity income for life. At some point it’s not realistic to fill out an infinite number of those forms for free, either because the organization verifies excessively or because the employee is in some never-ending quest to shave a tenth of a point off his mortgage.
Don’t feel too bad about the apartment’s having to pay a few bucks. They’re getting verification through a reliable, secure system that you’re gainfully employed. This is usually of more value to them than some illegible fax they get back from someone who may well be your brother-in-law claiming you work for him. They’re in business to “sell” you the lease.