National Association of Independent Landlords review: Identity 17

As a long-time member of NAIL, I, too was upset when I last needed a credit report only to be told essentially that unless I submitted a boatload of documents, I could no longer get them. Bear in mind that I already belong, have paid my fees, and never had any warning about any of this.
Because over the years I have always been able to depend on them, and because as a retired businessperson, I understand the current gov't restrictions on personal information, I was willing to try again, and hopefully, with a more understanding person at NAIL, I have been able to reinstate my membership without too much extra paperwork.

By no means do I think they are a fraudulent or unethical company, but I will let you know how my latest effort turns out.

We independent landlords must have a reliable source for credit information, and I have found out that those sources are not abundant.

National Association of Independent Landlords (www.nail-usa.com) is a scam, either that or it's the worst run business in the world. Of all of the services they claim to offer, the only thing they can do is to charge my credit card. They route all requests through a different media. Web requests are lost and they asked me to email. Email requests are no longer valid, "can you fax it?" That's followed by, "we didn't get your fax, can you call back?" Unsurprisingly, they then refer me back to the website. They apologize each time and then reroute to a different media. Unsurprisingly, they can't take cancellation and refund requests over the phone, "Can you email that?"

They never produced any useful results in the 5 weeks I tried to work with them aside from charging my credit card and wasting a ton of my time. I seriously doubt NAIL is an actual business; it's a scam targeted at landlords.

I have also been a long time member of NAIL. They use to be good when they were based only in Houston. Since the LA office opened up there has been nothing but issues. Faxes never arrive, e-mails and phone calls are not returned in a timely manner. Mistakes are made on collection of rent and they you are never notified if an ACH bounces. I have grown so alarmed by their performance that I have cancelled all business with them effective May 1st. That is if I can get a response by from my e-mail or phone calls. To protect myself I guess I am going to have to send them a notice via certified mail.

For the third posting above the manager Brittany is actually the daughter of the owner Tracey Benson who may be married to the business partner / husband / father Woodrow Watts. They are a very interesting bunch. But from my experience with them, I would say don't do any sort of business with them.

If you feel scammed by them like me, don't feel too bad, Tracey owns a bunch of other companies too, so you're one of the many that were probably taken advantage of. Lessons learned. You'll find Tracey driving around in her silver convertable Mercedes CLK in Los Angeles if that helps.

You'll find a nice writeup about Tracey and her other companies on the 7th post in this forum
http://forum.freeadvice.com/landlord-tenant-issues-42/how-report-bad-tenants-111234.html

I've used this company for years to collect rent. They were never great at customer service or replying back to questions, but at least I could get a response and rent was collected. In the last six months (today is 6/14/09), they have gotten worse. If there is one glitch in collecting rent, it is never properly collected again. It is now bad enough that I am dropping them completely and looking elsewhere for a company to collect rent.
I don't feel as if I have been scammed, but it is a very poorly run business.

I have been watching this company's name for reports of this type and was thankful to find this documentation.

We, also, had a nightmare experience with this company. They blatantly misrepresented the criteria for obtaining credit reports. We signed up and found out things would be required that we would not be able to provide. Brittany advised that they were sorry and would be sending back our $100 fee. It never happened, of course, and when I contacted them they acted as though Brittany was out of line for advising us that our monies would be returned. The woman I spoke to was rude and unprofessional -- and they need to be reported to the Attorney General's offices in each state in which their many dissatisfied consumers reside as well as the California Attorney General's office.

Further, the Better Business Bureaus need to be apprised, even if they do not act. It's these types of actions that ultimately enlighten an unsuspecting customer base. A copy of the notations concerning this site on this company will suffice to establish there is a problem that needs to be addressed.

This company is not just a failure at professionalism, courtesy, and competence -- from my experience they are operating illegally, intentionally offering things they cannot provide, acting as though it's all a mistake and then refusing to reimburse their clientele for a useless service that is not functional. Doing business in that manner is fraud.

Do not walk -- run -- in the opposite direction. There are some good services out there: this isn't one of them.

6/18/09

I had just discoved out of 52 claims against credit over past filings only 7 were filed with the credit agencies, I was blown off by office staff, but when I saw complaints on this site I insisted on proof of filings and just received a ledger showing what was actually turned over to credit bureau from tenant claims. Staff that answers phone was blowing me off for three weeks until I insisted on information which is at their finger tips. I have had no problem pulling credit reports, however with over 100k in claims unrecorded when I thought they were is a severe problem in trust for me as it should be to you. If you have filed a claim against a tenants credit you may want to check to see if it was truely filed!

I have been with NAIL for about 6years now and have had both good and bad experiences with them. I would like to check other reputable organizations, but have yet to find one for independent landlords. I've read the posts from others that say these organizations are out there, but can anyone give me a name of such an organization other than NAIL?

Awhile back I looked into joining NAIL but went with the United Landlords of America for a few years, but the American Apartment Owners Association, www.joinaaoa.org, took them over a few years back. They cater to independent landlords, have better pricing for tenant screening, and have services for delinquent rent collection. The new organization is much better, has incredible customer service, and has helped me out of making some bad mistakes. I hope this helps some landlords out there!

There is also a new service created specifically with Private Landlords in mind...called MyScreeningReport.com

Is the industry's first CONSUMER initiated tenant screening reports.

No certification is required and you get access to FULL services.

www.MyScreeningReport.com

I have friends who have 2 rentals and used http://citicredit.net/ Has anyone else used them? If so, can you share your experience with them? Had problems with the realtors who processed my tenants, so I have had to go to court for 3 tenants so far. Want to help eliminate this hardship (even though I won all my cases and represented myself). Any feedback is welcome. Thanks!

This was a waste of money and time. It has being 20 days since I hired them to do a full background check. They way they work I could lose good potential renters. 4 days after hiring them I decided to do my own background check. That work better. A week and a half later they called me to tell me that they couldn't get report from the employers and to call them back to see if I wanted them to continue. almost 3 weeks later they called me again to tell me the same. What is wrong with this picture. They didn't even offer to return part of the payment if they couldn't fulfill their obligation.

Took our customer payment and refuse applicable service supported by their frivolous internal rules ... Simply Dishonest.

Don't wast your money! I wasted my money on a basic membership. I only have 1 rental property and wanted to pull the credit report of a prospective tenant. After jumping through all of the hoops to send my documentation (tax records, photo ID, phone bills, etc) I learned that to get a comprehensive credit report, I will have to undergo a site inspection at the cost of another $60. Instead of a comprehensive credit report, they sent me a pre-qualification report on my prospective tenant with a single number based on a scale from 1-5 that means nothing to me. Very deceiving website. Very deceptive company.

It's a total scam.
I had to cancel the Rental Collection service because I would get the ACH transfer ONE month late! They didn't even want to refund me the service fee for being late.
Don't use them. They'll be quick to charge your credit card but offer nothing in return. Just have your renter send you payment by mail. Don't waste your money on NAIL, you won't receive any benefit from them. All you'll get is frustration, lose money and feel cheated.
Stay as far away from them as you can.

NAIL took my February rental deposit. They claim that they sent tenants' payment to my account, but it was never posted. They told me that they would investigate, but now I am sending them emails requesting an update on the investigation and they will not reply to my request. I still do not have my oney.

NAIL has been getting later and later in their payments and now my rent hasn't shown up at all. I am becoming concerned about their stability. Has anyone else had a response from Britney regarding late rent? I have not been getting any response to my questions or email.