Potential Tenant w/o Green Card

[Aralyn Austin]

Hello all,

I have a very young married couple and the son's mother looking to rent my SFH. Once we began the screening process, I was told that the mother does not yet have her green card. The couple are both US citizens. I am not able to do a proper screening of the mother, but she is the breadwinner among the three.

Should I even attempt to move forward with them?

[Account Closed]

If she's working legally, she will have a SSN, even if she doesn't have a green card.  You can have a right to work permit, with a SSN, and not have a green card.

I volunteer with ESL second language students who are usually spouses of IT workers here on work visas.  I'm somewhat familiar with the laws.

I'd tell them you need an applicant who has a SSN, and anyone working legally will have one, regardless of citizenship, and sorry, you'll have to turn them down if they can't provide proof of legal income.  In CA, you have to allow them to pool their resources to meet your income requirements, but you have the right, in my opinion, to require proof of all of their credit scores and legal income.

Worst case scenario, they get a legal aid person to confront you.  If that happens, then hire a lawyer to deal with it.  I've encountered some real idiot bully legal aid law students.  Just because they are working for or volunteering for a legal aid organization, or they are a law student or even a newly bar-passed lawyer, doesn't mean they know what they're doing or aren't bluffing you.

Good luck.  I have a bachelors in law, have worked for lawyers, was a PM in CA for many years - and that's what I'd do, for what it's worth, based on my knowledge and experience.

Oh, and whenever I pushed back on the legal aid bullies regarding what my criteria was for denying "their" applicants, they backed down every single time.  Without a fight.  So, they knew they were full of it, or found out they were wrong, after consulting with their supervisors.