Being Someone's Reference

[Candice Davis]

Hi. I was Googling and it looked like this may be a good place to ask, because I can not find an answer anywhere! My fiance's ex (they have a son together) is asking him to be her reference on an apartment application. He doesn't want to do it, but hasn't said no yet so she just went ahead and did it. I got the text a few hours ago. He was worried what kind of repercussions there might be for being a reference for her, because when they broke up, she was a horrible housekeeper, bad at renting, he usually dealt with the landlord, and just in general, bad at the whole apartment thing. Not to mention at her last residence, she messed that up pretty poorly and the guy may be suing her for $10 grand in damages and she writes do not contact next to his name. My fiance does not want being a reference to effect our chances of getting a better apartment in the future if she messes up. We are all pretty civil, despite their bad break-up, but we think she is getting the wrong idea with this. Anyway, wondering if there are any repercussions to him being a reference. He didn't originally think there would be any, but I found a lot of articles of not doing it if you can't honestly give them a good reference, but nothing about the legalities of it. TIA. 

[Bob H.]

Perhaps your fiance, when contacted by the prospective landlord, could give a variation of this old job reference line: "You would be lucky to have this man work for you."

The message is all in the interpretation. :)