Parent Guarantee but tenant bad history

[Peter Morrissey]

I have been working with a couple who is moving up from NYC to Syracuse. They came up to visit the place a few days ago. Their mother has agreed to guarantee the rent and has already sent me a bank check with security deposit. She looks solid financially. The son has two misdemeanors for marijuana possession from 2011 and 2012. Since that is legal in some states now, maybe no big deal. He also has a collections record for an apartment in texas from 2012 for 1200.00, and an evictions flag in the smartmove report for a judgement of 135.00. 

Looking at the manual app they filled out and sent me a picture of via email, he did not answer the questions in the app regarding those issues. Lesson learned for me to be more thorough next time.

His mother is guaranteeing the rent, so should I be concerned about this? He is coming up here to go to school. He is 26.

My concern is that if there are problems, his mother is in texas and it would be difficult to go after her.

It isn't the best time of year to be renting in this area but not impossible by any means.

Should I run?

Should I ask for another month's rent?

Pete

[Gail K.]

Failure to complete the application completely should be grounds for declining this applicant.

Mom knows he'd never be accepted as a suitable tenant.

I have recently had applicants who have done this (failed to complete the part of our application that asks "have you ever been evicted?").   Our ads say "NO history of evictions" and of course, checking with our local online sources confirm this has taken place with them.

It's like these idiots figure "if I don't write anything in here, it didn't happen.  I'm not lying; I'm just avoiding the issue".

I just shove all their paperwork back in an envelope, mail it back to them with my form declining them due to both "history of evictions" and "incomplete application" and block their phone number in case they want to call and whine about this.

Gail