Background and credit Checks

[Lee M.]

Do you guys run a credit and background check on every applicant?  I have several rental properties, and I am inclined to not run background or credit checks on students that are in professional graduate school (medical,dental, PA, optometry, etc) because I know the requirements of the school will not permit students with a criminal history, and they are funded by loans or parents and don't have much credit history anyway.   I could not request the report from the school, because it is typically not available to the student from what I understand.

I just wanted to see if it was illegal to have employed applicants do a credit/background check and not require that from certain students.

It's not that these people are applying at the same time for the same house, but I just wonder over time if I am opening myself to scrutiny if all of my files get looked at if there were ever an issue, and I don't have background checks on some but I have them for others.   Let me know what you think.

Thanks!

[Daniel O.]

@Lee M. You open yourself up for problems if you don't run the credit / background check for all applicants. What happens if you allow someone to rent without running a credit / background check, then refuse another person after running the credit / background check on them? What if the person you refused is a member of a protected class and they claim that you discriminated against them by requiring the background check on them but not someone else. I think you would have a hard time defending against that charge of discrimination. Yes, it makes sense the way you describe it, but are you sure it would make sense to a jury?