Rent to a business instead of a person

[Tom Huang]

Hi all, I just bought my first duplex to house hack, I will be living in 1 unit and rent out the other one. I had a protential tenant who wants to live in my second unit, but she wants to rent the apartment under her business name instead of her name. (Her mom and her own a daycare), she does not want to provide bank statements because it’s too “invasive” what other documents do I need to rent to my apartment to a business? Thanks a lot!

[James Wise]

Originally posted by @Tom Huang:

Hi all, I just bought my first duplex to house hack, I will be living in 1 unit and rent out the other one. I had a protential tenant who wants to live in my second unit, but she wants to rent the apartment under her business name instead of her name. (Her mom and her own a daycare), she does not want to provide bank statements because it’s too “invasive” what other documents do I need to rent to my apartment to a business? Thanks a lot!

 If it's zoned residential which I'd imagine it is you need to only entertain residential tenants. It sounds like this chick may or may not be a residential tenant who just wants to use her company name on the lease though so I suppose that is just some food for thought. If we go with the idea that she is going to live there just as any other residential tenant would & not run her business out of it & only have the lease in her business name the answer to her would still be no.

She likely wants to do the lease in her business name to give her less personal liabilities. Reading between the lines she's probably got a crappy rental history & horrible credit. This is why she's balking at you running a background check & asking for bank statements. You have every right to request these things. Deny this tenant & move on from her & anyone else who acts like her in the future.