Interesting tenant application

[Yulia Kaygorodtseva]

Hello, Gurus!

I got an interesting tenant application now

She is from Puerto Rico, moved here about 3 months ago (to texas and has been staying with her friends for now).

Her husband was killed in Iraq, so she is getting a social security for two kids - $1426 a month , they are 9 and 13 years old. she will be getting Social Security till they are 18 years old.

She is renting out her house in Puerto Rico for $1,000 where she lived from March 2005 till Oct 2014.

Most of her documents are in Spanish, of course... which I dont speak lol

So her steady income is $1426*2 and $1000, plus she started a new job at ADT in January 2015, $2000 a month plus commissions. so its a brand new job. Before that she worked as a realtor in PR.

My rent is $1375 , so technically she can afford it... even without actual job (Social Security and her rental income is $3852)

What are your thoughts on that? she is willing to pay the double deposit if needed or prepay 2 months rent

thank you!!

[Terry B.]

Yulia Kaygorodtseva I'm not sure how the social security checks are set up, but you may want to get some legal advice if, without the social security, you wouldn't rent to this perspective applicant. Reason being...

If the checks are made out to "Jane Doe (your applicant) for the benefit of Billy Doe (child)" or made payable to Billy Doe (applicants child) with Jane Doe (your applicant) listed as the custodian, you may not have legal recourse to gain access to these funds to recoup any unpaid rent or damages.

Not intended to be legal advice, as I am not a lawyer... Nor do I play one on TV ;)

I just have some experience in banking where we ran into situations where custodians weren't allowed to do certain things with these types of checks because the money is technically the child's and doesn't belong to the custodian.

It could be completely different in this instance... Just wanted to share!