Potential tenant charged with sexual misconduct with minor child

[Nancy Carr]

n Alabama.. I have a potential tenant and did my due diligence,  ran this potential tenant through rentprep.com for a tenant screening.  Shows credit, ok, shows judgments, payment history and says NO convictions.

For kicks and giggles, I googled him a few minutes ago and BAM, he was charged  with sexual misconduct with a minor child in March 2018.  He did go through a divorce a year ago.  He mentioned to me that it wasn't pleasant.

The online screening service did not show any convictions.  So now I'm torn on what I should do. We are suppose to sign a lease tomorrow morning at 10:30am.

He has not seen the lease yet, can I add something to the agreement that felony convictions during the lease agreement are cause to terminate the lease?  Is that legal?  

I fully realize this could have been a vindictive wife who filed charges that were bogus...but I don't know that.  It is too late to call the county to get information.

What advice do you have?  I sure as hell wish I had googled his name before today....

[John Teachout]

Call him tonight. Say some additional info just showed up and ask him to explain the nature of the charges and if they've been adjudicated yet. Probably delay the signing until you have a chance to sort through it.