Potential Tenant Question

[Rachel Pivonka]

We are in the process of renting our first property. We have a law school student starting her first semester that has applied. She has filled out an application and we have checked her credit, background, eviction record, landlord reference, and she has provided proof of scholarships and loans covering her living expenses which meet the 3x rule. The question is about her fiance. Their plan is as soon as he gets a job here he will move and join her. They came to see the condo together. He completed and paid for the mysmartmove credit/background/eviction check and his score was very strong. But he keeps putting off filling out an application and emailing it back to us. She says he is worried that if we call his employer they will be upset and treat him badly because they do not know he will be leaving. I told her we understand and will not call his employer, especially since we have verified that she will have enough loans/scholarship to pay for rent without any of his income. She says a day later that he is still worried that someone will mistakingly call the employer and he hasn't filled out our app. They thought I worked for a big company and others would be handling his application. I told her that wasn't the case and reassured her, I also told her I could speak to him directly about this if he wanted to discuss it. She said she would talked to him about it again tonight. I asked what line of work he was in and she said engineer. They live together now and their wedding is in 3 months. 

My questions are...

Should I tell him to just leave of the employer totally section blank on application? 

Is it okay if he doesn't fill out an application since I have his background/credit/eviction check? I also have a copy of his ID. Keep in mind she has enough funds to cover rent alone.

Should we be trying to get her fiance to go ahead and sign the lease now even though it may be a couple months before he moves in and contribute to rent? And if not should we add him to the lease when he moves in?

[JR T.]

Theres only one story. He submitted an incomplete application, incomplete because he won't state his source of income, if any. You are setting yourself up to roll over on your policies in 3 months when he moves in. The post is from CA where evictions are costly and take a long time. No telling whether he's a deadbeat although many deadbeats share the personality defects of the applicant: Narcissit. Rules and policies don't apply to him. Throw in that spouse is first year law student.. sheesh. Any dispute more complex than unpaid rent will be a year in court and thousands in attorneys fees. Tenants in California are well aware only the most serious lease violations ever get litigated. This tenant will soon learn not to mention the spouse. Simply moving him in mid lease and continuing to pay rent would get it done for them.

It is dangerous to render an opinion in a public forum "based on the facts" if you don't take the time to read all the posts. Someone could wind up with Fair Housing problems if they take from that it is ok to approve an incomplete app. That's never ok because you'll screen differently based on what data you have, inconsistent screening disproportionately affects several protected classes.

In order to meaningfully approve and contract with this family you'd have to be prepared to accept his incomplete application. For that reason alone every landlord should reject this tenant explaining that in compliance with FHA the same information must be collected from every applicant.