The tenant is not the one who wants, but the one who can. It takes more than money to sign a rental agreement in Spain today: demand is growing rapidly and there are dozens of applications for each apartment, while landlords are trying to cover their backs by searching for the ideal tenant. And it is not an ideal way of speaking. More and more people are barring families with pets or young children, demanding extra guarantees and no-pay insurance, and even holding auditions to find the best profile. All this, of course, in addition to the claim of solvency duly accredited by pay slips, contracts or bank statements.

Faced with such a scenario and the impossibility of meeting this level of demand, there are those who choose the easiest (and illegal) way: falsifying documents to show the landlord. This results in a lucrative business that thrives in the heat of an increasingly complex and competitive real estate market.

Solvent only tenants. Renting an apartment in Spain increasingly requires meeting two requirements. The first is to have sufficient resources to cope with rent increases that are surprisingly difficult to control, rising by 17 percent a year in some areas. The second condition is to be financially strong. The more, the better.

Housing supply not meeting demand, advertisements attracting more than a hundred applicants, and apartments being rented within a few days of being advertised have caused landlords to become more demanding in choosing tenants. And this often involves making any demands to avoid non-payment, including insurance, guarantees and requiring candidates to produce pay slips and employment contracts. Idea: prove stability.

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But… What if I can’t? These requirements make it easier for applicants who are more financially comfortable, but can be challenging for those who cannot afford them. It’s no longer a matter of income or making more or less money at the end of the month, it’s a matter of demonstrable stability. And in a country with a significant impact on the informal economy and millions of self-employed workers, a profile that often faces greater difficulties when hiring is no small problem.

The industry therefore ensures that there are a significant number of tenants who choose to “compensate” to make their employment situation more attractive in the eyes of potential landlords. Like? Altering or outright falsifying payslips and employment contracts. The practice is not new, but it appears to be empowering and encouraging a growing business of people dedicated to producing documents on demand. Everything so that tenants can pass the filter and buy a house.

Neither new nor unknown. It is not easy to provide data that would give an accurate measure of the extent to which such tricks are used, but there are indicators that clarify two ideas: first, the awareness of the real estate industry; the second does not respond to specific cases. In 2020, the Lease Negotiation Agency (ANA) claimed that 10% of documents provided by tenants to demonstrate their solvency were “incorrect” or “altered”.

Housfy recently repeated the same percentage. ANA promotes itself as the “leader in rental security in Madrid”, making it an interested party; But there are other indicators that suggest that frauds do not only occur in isolated cases.

Country published a report yesterday naming many agencies in the industry who have seen an increase in payrolls and “compensatory” working lives. “This is because tenants know that there are few houses and many candidates, so they want to offer the most outstanding economic profile to choose from,” says Mercedes Robles of Arrenta brokerage. According to the data it manages, such practices already reach 10% of operations; This figure is twice as high as in previous years. This rate “never exceeded 5%,” the expert recalls.

“You can rent your flat”. There is another tip that is equally or even more relevant. A call comes to Milanuncios to find posts by people offering services to prepare documents to bypass the host filter. In an advertisement published just a few weeks ago, it is stated that “Contracts and pay slips are made in order to be able to rent an apartment. With these documents, you can already rent your apartment even if it does not come with your seniority and salary.” He’s definitely not the only one hanging on this platform.

Country He quotes one person who requested 180 euros via chat for the retouching of three payslips. Also charge an extra 50 Euro if you want to change contracts. Some law firms are already seeing an “alarming increase” in lawsuits.

Increase your salary with one click. It is not surprising that the practice has become widespread. While the conditions imposed by landlords are being tightened, there are more than a hundred applicants looking for tenants in provinces where the markets are more saturated. Changing a pay stub or contract doesn’t require a lot of logistics either. “It’s very simple,” says the industry itself.

“It is enough to have a program with functions for copying, changing and editing images. Increase your salary in one click to reach the minimum salary for renting an apartment, change your name to the name of an acquaintance, switch from temporary to permanent or just create a fictitious contract, demonstrate solvency and meet the requirements are some of the tactics used to,” Housfy explains.

Beware of deception. Antena3 warned ANA in 2020: “Normally, they get a payslip from a friend and change the name. Other times, especially in small companies, they tell their bosses to prepare a payslip for the rental.” The increasing prevalence of document forgery and retouching also explains why institutions are funding themselves to detect such fraud. Housfy also recommends requesting more documentation, such as three recent pay stubs, or checking with the company you work with for the tenant’s approval.

A risky app. There are risks of forging or retouching documents to overcome host filters. And serious. They add from Lexperta Abogados: “This practice, which seems like simple mischief, constitutes a criminal offense and can lead to imprisonment under Article 395 of the Criminal Code.” The legislation is very clear on this issue: it states that anyone who “alters” or “impersonates” a “public, official or commercial document” risks imprisonment from six months to three years and a fine of up to 12 months. .

Moreover, the office points out that if the landlord or insurance company accepts a lease based on false documents, they “will be at risk of signing an invalid contract.” “The decision would have been made by deception,” they say.

There are already cases of tenants being caught red-handed, such as a 32-year-old woman who was arrested in 2022 for falsifying her pay slip, contract and CV, among other documents, to rent an apartment in Palma. Ibiza Newspaper He claimed at the time that he had been arrested for forgery of documents and fraud and that he had a similar background. Other landlords have publicly reported that they have been subjected to similar attempts by tenants.

Image | Ján Jakub Naništa (Unsplash)

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