Tenant With Eviction

[Daniel Paloscio]

I've been trying to rent the front unit of the duplex I recently purchased and live in for about 10 days now, with no luck. Someone wants to move in, but her boyfriend has an eviction on his record from the last year. She has no evictons but has fallen behind on some credit card debt. This was what has been disclosed to me so far. She knows I'll be doing a credit and criminal backround check.

I'm asking $725/month with a $725 security deposit. She has 2 cats and I'm requiring a $250 non-refundable pet fee. I was thinking about telling this possible tenant to pay $725 first/last as well as pet fee and a $725 deposit for a total of $2425 @ move in. Everything I've read advises against renting to someone with an eviction. I thought this situation may be different because one of the tennants has a clean rental history. What do you guys recommend I do in this situation?

[Jay Orlauski]

If it has only been ten days I would continue screening - DO NOT settle on your tenant - they will not only be your tenants but they are going to be your very close and intimate neighbors - and you will have to live with your decision LITERALLY - It's true that bad things can happen to good people - just be aware that some one who had to be evicted means that some other landlord was forced to give three day notices or 30 day notices, and when tenants did not leave the unit when requested to, forced the landlord to spend time and money going to the courthouse to file paperwork , pay fees and hire people to deliver notices and a whole slew of other things that are the opposite of cashing a rent check. I would never do that to a landlord or anyone I owed money to for that matter - so in many cases it may speak to the character of the person - at least that's how I see it. As mentioned - there could very well have been a over zealous landlord - however rent is due every month and this is no surprise to anyone and when you receive a legal 30 notice it should be adhered to - people that don't have a history of doing that don't have a place in my apartments as far as I'm concerned.

If you elect to bring in someone with an eviction, you should vet them thoroughly and understand the situation and how it came to be - check the references too. I would be extremely cautious about taking a chance like that.

Also,do not forget that whoever you select is going to be your neighbor so its also important that your personalities match up - you will find that this is just as important as the rent as you will not just regret your decision once in a while - you'll be reminded of it every single day. Also - don't just pick the only applicant - you should have a selection of people to choose from - keep screening - you'll get more applicants and you'll feel a lot better about your decision if you know that you did a comparative analysis and selected the best choice you could find versus the first person that walked up. good luck - keep us informed.