Potential tenants with eviction history

[Sami Gren]

HI all,

when I'm renting out Apartments I often bump into people that say they have an eviction history but it's from a long time ago for example 7 to 10 years ago and they claim that it was when they were young and still in school and they couldn't make it etc. but by now they are on time for the last 5-7-10 years.

Would you have a problem renting out to such a person at all?

[Kyle J.]

One of my tenant screening criteria is no prior evictions, ever.  It doesn't matter to me when it was, or the story behind it (every single person will have a story).  What matters to me is that they made another landlord go all the way through the formal court eviction process to recover possession of the property.  

It's one thing if they were late on the rent and then got caught up on the payments, or they couldn't get caught up and agreed to voluntarily move out.  However, an eviction means they refused to leave and forced the landlord to go through the court process to recover possession of their property.  

That's not the type of person I want as a tenant.  Plus, if they did it once, I believe it's more likely they'll do it again (and they'll certainly be more educated in how to do it and any potential delay tactics).  

I'm not sure why anyone would want a tenant like that, but I know that I have way too many applicants to choose from to ever have to accept one like that.

To each their own though.