Id argue that you should base the above on the current LL. Hopefully you have become more adept at finding LL’s who are good, rather than ones who are trying to take advantage of you.
I just rented a new place. I asked the LL’s straight out, “If we rent this place, what is your policy/habit on returning deposits. Can we speak to your former tenants about this.”
1 LL balked and said no, that they had no way of contacting the previous tenant even though earlier in the tour they had talked about “keeping in touch” with them. We RAN like the wind.
1 LL showed the place to us with the tenant still in it. They were very forthcoming about the fact that they loved the LL and were sorry to leave.
1 gave us a phone number, we called and were told there were no problems, great LL, etc etc.
Id say 2 pro LL reviews, 1 negative, says that there are good LL and bad ones.
To also be fair, 1 tried to pull a bait and switch on us too. They advertised one that was a great deal, then when we contacted them about it they started offering us other properties that were not a good deal instead. (Funny, why did you post that one with the great deal 5 mintes ago if it was rented already??????)
