Applicant talked about withholding rent and suing prev landlord

[Nick Carlson]

Would you ever consider an applicant who talked about (as to why they are moving) how they had to withhold rent and take their previous landlord to court (I'm not sure who initiated actually), even if they were completely right and justified?

My gut here is to say: no, there are enough applicants out there and just find one who hasn't had this situation.

It makes me wonder though if tenants in that situation are just in a "screwed if I do, screwed if I don't" situation. This specific example was that the landlord was not making necessary essential repairs and in the end only was entitled to half of the withheld rent. 

To add onto this, if this comes out during the pre-screening process before you've made an appointment, do you still agree to show them the apartment and move forward with the application process or how would you handle this?

[Jeff Willis]

I agree with @Howard Herrington. There are plenty of good applicants where you don't have to risk it.