Collecting a years lease up front issues

[Tom R.]

I've had an interested party request paying for a years lease up front. He did tell me that the reason was that he had his identity stolen and his credit ruined. I told him I hadn't done that before and I had to check if there were legal issues involved to buy time. I'm thinking if he is paying up front I can overlook his credit if his background check and referrals check out but I'm wondering what you guys think. I also am wondering if there are any legal issues with this in California. We do have some pretty messed up laws.  If he pays up front it probably would be harder to evict should I need to but non payment wont be an issue for at least a year. I would keep the rent in the bank and pay myself out of it monthly in case he decides to break the lease. What are your thoughts?

[Alexander Felice]

Find another tenant.

There are more detriments than benefits to taking 12 months upfront, it's harder to evict like you said. You won't be able to spend any of the money, so you get no real benefit, and you're still left with a tenant who has admittedly bad credit.

if you take 12 post dated checks, you have no future recourse because post dated checks have no actual value and now you have a regular tenant, but with no credit decision.

If you want to do credit checks on tenants, which I highly recommend, then stick to it. Skip this guy, don't volunteer to a headache. If he wants to use your standard screening and passes, then fine, treat him like a regular tenant buy you're making special accommodation for someone who can't pass standard credit check. HARD PASS