diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..22500a310
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+node_modules/
+frontend/node_modules/
+user-service/.env
diff --git a/user-service/model/repository.js b/user-service/model/repository.js
index bfbf83452..d5c4a2a2c 100644
--- a/user-service/model/repository.js
+++ b/user-service/model/repository.js
@@ -15,3 +15,7 @@ export async function createUser(params) {
   return new UserModel(params)
 }
 
+export async function checkUserName(params) {
+  console.log(UserModel.exists({username: params}));
+  return UserModel.exists({username: params})
+}
diff --git a/user-service/model/user-orm.js b/user-service/model/user-orm.js
index a630f7704..c7b08a945 100644
--- a/user-service/model/user-orm.js
+++ b/user-service/model/user-orm.js
@@ -1,14 +1,20 @@
-import { createUser } from './repository.js';
+import { createUser, checkUserName } from './repository.js';
 
 //need to separate orm functions from repository to decouple business logic from persistence
 export async function ormCreateUser(username, password) {
     try {
-        const newUser = await createUser({username, password});
-        newUser.save();
-        return true;
+        const exists = await checkUserName(username);
+        if(!exists){
+            const newUser = await createUser({username, password});
+            newUser.save();
+            return true;
+        } else {
+            const err = new Error('ERROR: UserName already exists');
+            console.log(err.message);
+            throw err;
+        }
     } catch (err) {
         console.log('ERROR: Could not create new user');
         return { err };
     }
 }
-