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Updated about 15 years ago on . Most recent reply
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Multiple adult applicants and income
I've heard to screen each adult applicant. But in what cases do you reject the whole group when one person has enough income but the other doesn't? For example, you could have a husband that works and a stay at home mom that doesn't. That situation would probably work out okay. But where do you draw the line, and avoid discriminating?
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There is very good reason to be cautious with a group of unrelated adults. They have always been my highest failure rate group as well as the highest damages group.
Unrelated single young males have been the worst, the last two have ended in evictions, both due to non-payment, one caused when one of the young men moved out, the other both just not paying.
They were also the worst damages group and the places required the most cleaning, re-painting and repair. They weren't trashed, just abused and not cleaned.
Luckily, I haven't had any in years, none has passed my background checks.
Unrelated young couples have been my next highest failure group, not married, this group has had a good number of lease breaks and one eviction for non-payment. I just had another failure with this group this month.
Married young couples have been no problem as yet for me, no evictions, no lease breakages, occasional late payments but every group has them.
A large group of unrelated adults, two+ I have never passed as yet due to bad credit, eviction history or criminal record for ANY of the applicants.
So, always do checks on all tenants for records, evictions, credit and make sure you get last month and security, not just security.
Make sure your lease is clear that if one moves out, his responsibility does not end and that a breakage will result in loss of security.
You have good reason to be cautious and I highly recommend trading carefully, legally, but very carefully.