Do you take tenant's personal life into consideration when choosing?

Question

If you are screening tenants and you figure that the tenant might be  have a difficult life situation, would you put that into consideration when choosing if the financial side of the screening passes?

On a hunch and putting together the dots, I figure that one eligble tenant may be going through a divorce soon as he is moving in with a younger woman while still having his wife as joint owner on his bank accounts.  To me, that is a red flag?

Bill Gulley · Answer

Maybe the guy has a good relationship with his X to be, maybe he kept her on the account to help her out. Maybe the X to be had a boyfriend that prompted him to move out. Maybe there is nothing between the younger lady and that guy on a romantic side, maybe it's just a matter of convenience.

The greatest default by tenants seems to be younger unmarried couples, period. I have had a few but I can't say they were really a problem. There are other personal aspects that I consider more than who they hook up with, like their interest in the unit, their speach and how they carry themselves. Is their car neat and clean? How are the little kids dressed, with clean clothes of just wearing a diaper? Are they clean or do they look as though they just crawled out from under a rock? Now days, I don't think making a judgment of someone based on what you described is relevant to their performance in a lease. Bill

Account Closed · Answer

I'd guess that if the wife is still on the bank accounts, she doesn't know about the young honey being set up in a love nest.

Not really any of my business until the wife finds out, files for divorce and cleans out those accounts, leaving the cheatin' hubby broke and unable to pay me my rent.

Familial status is children and does not cover anything else. State law sometimes covers marital status, but federal law does not.

However, you might get sued for religious discrimination if you refuse to rent to couples "living in sin". I could make a very good case for religious discrimination and I'm not even a mean shark-lawyer.

And don't forget that juries are made up of tenants who would love to stick it to the landlord and don't need a legal reason to do so.

Account Closed · Answer

I would check out the possibility that the man is renting as a front for the younger woman and isn't going to be living there or paying any of the rent.

I don't care about divorced or not, or married or not as long as the applicant has good references and enough income.

I do care about some aspects of the tenants' personal life.

I got an email request from someone with a very suspicious email moniker. I looked the moniker up on google and got multiple hits about "swinging and are looking for  more partners" (and that's the tame part of it) plus lots of photos of wild drunken parties and dope use.

Yeah, it's their personal business, but they can do it in someone else's house.

I've also had applicants send me addresses for their  web pages full of photos of themselves and their children with not nearly enough clothes on and more wild drunken doping party photos.

I've got enough problems with tenants who don't have any common sense. I don't need any with even less than normal common sense.

And just as a matter of principle, I won't accept deadbeat parents who refuse to pay their child support.

Ralph S. · Answer

Family Status is protected.  Don't even think married, X's, kids, child support or anything else on that score.

Credit scores, assets and financial history are just that, history, and are no guarantee of future performance.

And while there are many other considerations, many already noted, on just the OP's question,  listen to the applicant answer the question "why are you moving or are interested in my rental."  Consider the impact on their future financial abilities, not their family status.

Course, if "he is moving in with a younger woman while still having his wife as joint owner on his bank accounts." I'd require the wife to co-sign!  :mrgreen:

Jim Siegal · Answer

I do care about some aspect of their personal life: Must not do drugs.

Don't want tenants that are high all the time :)

Leslie A. · Answer

My personal opinion is that recently divorced or going-through-a-divorce are risky, because their life is often very unstable.

I moved 15 times in 2 years after my divorce (many years ago).

Also, a lot of times there is a lot of conflict and violence with the ex-spouse.

Brian Levredge · Answer

Check with your Fair Housing Association, but in CA, yes that would be discrimination based on status.  It may seem like a bit of a grey area but it's far better to err on the side of caution than vice versa.  If you are really concerned about the situation, then you can simply tell them something along that lines that "you had another applicant who was more qualified."

Edwin Brown · Answer

Does anyone know if this is discrimination? I'd like to know, because it sounds like a fair point from a landlording perspective.

Mark Updegraff · Answer

I always try to err on the side of caution.  So maybe I'm just too paranoid...

Do you take tenant's personal life into consideration when choosing?

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