Landlord only Allows a Co-Signer if Tenant is a Fulltime Student

[Ted Klein]

My son who is 25 has a good job, makes greater than the 2x monthly rent requirement, has steady employment with the same employer for 3+ years, is a hard worker who has diligently saved his money and had recently finished school with no student debt. Sounds pretty good. :)

However, he doesn't have an established credit record with the reporting agencies. He does have over 4 1/2 years of rental history in only two apartments. He recently had applied for a single occupancy apartment in the Puget Sound area by the University District. When they contacted him with the application results, they stated that he didn't have any credit history or even a credit ID, which makes sense because he always paid cash for his needs.

Given the situation, I had offered to co-sign to help him get into the apartment and he was told that since he was not a full time student they would not accept a co-signer. I'm not sure what difference it makes if he was a student or not, he has a qualified co-signer willing to assist if he were to fail to make the rent payments. Granted, I get it, it is a single occupancy and they probably don't want someone else on the lease that may try to move in.

To me this seems to be discriminatory by insisting that only college students can have a co-signer. I have not read the local laws regarding co-signers, but if anyone has any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

[Nathan Gesner]

There are no law violations here. They have a policy, probably based on real-world experience with cosigners. I won't accept cosigners because every...single...time I accepted them, they refused to take responsibility when their precious child failed to pay rent or left a place trashed. And no offense intended but these parents are usually "helicopter parents" that constantly calling or email trying to argue with me about the lease agreement or why little Joey can't get the oven to work or why can't little Joey add three more roommates to help with his rent.

Cosigners are way too much work and trouble.