WWYD? Landlord rejected high-income tenant due to lack of credit

[Kris Taylor]

Someone I know (31 y/o) was just turned away from a rental property because she hasn't established enough credit in her adult life.

Background: This woman comes from a lot of money. Her father has done very well, and for her entire adult life has paid her way. He's given her a car paid with cash, signed & paid for for her apartments through grad school, and always given her direct deposited funds for living expenses. Now, she works as a nurse, making $50k a year for the past 12 mos and recently applied for an apartment rental. She was declined for poor (almost non-existent credit). Also, she has one unpaid medical bill from the past 18 mos that father was going to pay & forgot. It went to collections.

The father then offered to co-sign for his daughter, but it turns out HE has a low credit score. He has paid cash for all houses and cars since around 1997. Since he just started working as an independant contractor after a 15yr work-hiatus, he had to provide a bank statement to landlord as proof of available funds -- and did so, with a statement showing over $500,000 liquid cash in just one instituation. However, the father has a bad credit score, too. Why? Well, He recently short-sold a $4million vacation home in the past year, and also hasn't used credit in over 20 years due to having means. However, he is terrible at paying bills on time (because he lets mail pile up for weeks on end & and one time even had his electricity get shut off on his 7,000 square foot beach house ....because he didn't pay the bill on time.)

Despite the father's proof of cash though, the landlord rejected her application.

Mind you -- the woman now has a steady job  & income. And she has no criminal history. And has never been late with payments when she's rented other places.

 My question is...WWYD? Do you deny rentals to wealthy young adults who might have unestablished credit histories? Just wondering if wealth ever trumps poor or non-existant credit in any scenerio. (Trust me, I know wealthy tenants can still be awful tenants....just curious if this landlord's no-excuses credit requirements are standard practice in some areas). 

[Marcia Maynard]

We follow our established rental criteria.  Our criteria allows for situations such as this.  If no established credit, no problem, as I'm not loaning money.  If a weak credit history, clean up outstanding debt and pay extra security deposit.  If a bad credit history, no go.  Daddy's credit history is of no concern to me, as we don't accept co-signers. If she has 3x rent in verifiable income of at least one year, I'm okay with that.  Good job, good rental history... that's great and more important to me.  Everyone needs to start somewhere.  To cover my risk, I would ask for additional security deposit.  If she met our minimum criteria to rent in all aspects, I would offer to rent.  I would teach her how to be a good tenant with a good rental agreement and swift enforcement of any violations.  Sounds like the landlord passed on a potentially good tenant.