Out of State Cosigner

[Matthew Dunn]

Dear Fellow Landlords,

I just had an unfortunate experience that I'd really appreciate some input on.

We have advertised an apartment in FL and did some showings recently. I received an application from a student who goes to school nearby the apartment. I prescreened them and they don't meet the min credit score, or income, they also have no rental history. But they did say their Mom would cosign for them. I get that they are a student, so these items are quite common. They sent in the application and upon reviewing it, his Mom lives out of state, he did not include his Mums employment information or current address. I didn't run his application fee as I wanted to get more information on this situation. I've read in many cases its not advised to use a cosigner out of the county. I spoke with his mother and she was very aggressive towards the fact that I would not allow her to cosign due to her location. I explained that should I need to reach her in the future, being that she is located so far away could make things complicated. She was not ok with that and claimed I was discriminating them on her location. She claims she has other children who she has cosigned for out of state without issue. We debated the point and were not getting anywhere. The call ended with her telling me she would be reporting me. I feel I was reasonable to not take an application fee and do due diligence on this area, would love to hear your feedback.

Thank you

[JD Martin]

Out of state cosigner is no big deal, at least where I live. We do them all the time because we have co-signers for all students, and lots of times the parents live somewhere else. Why would you need to reach out to her other than the kid didn't pay rent? Our leases make it explicitly clear that the co-signer has no tenancy rights, only financial responsibility should the tenant default on the lease.