New York Landlord and Screening software.

[Loren Oatman]

I live in upstate NY and with the new tenet laws we can not ask if they have ever been evicted. We can only charge $20 for a back ground check. We can no longer ask for an application fee. With some other disturbing things. Is there property management software that one can use that will not get you in trouble. I see that many ask for application fees. 

[Timothy Smith]

@Loren Oatman great thread -- thanks for starting. I'm in Buffalo with 10 units (and growing) and have rehabbed and rented most of them in the middle of the new NYS laws. It certainly is a head-scratcher, and something you want to get familiar with before you start screening applicants.  

We personally don't collect any application fee, and the background/credit check fee is charged to the applicant via RentPrep.com or Cozy.co ONLY if they get through pre-screening, rental history verification, income verification, and references. Our attorney (who wrote the local brief on the LL/Tenant law) stated that this is a gray area of the law, and that we could defend this practice as the law states Landlord cannot collect more than $20 -- it doesn't address 3rd parties. Their position was that it will take time to see what practical application of the law demonstrates. 

Our pre-screening and application screening is extremely thorough -- enough so that by the time we get to the background/credit check portion, it's usually a formality, albeit a necessary one. Our apartment ads state that the background/credit check fee is credited towards first months rent for successful applicants (which we do) but we have also paid for the background/credit check ourselves. During this process, we have not had to turn anyone down. Unqualified parties who see that it is rigorous and thorough are turned off, and the confident ones are happy to pay the $35-40 fee knowing that it will be credited back to them.