Lifestyle questions in rental application

[Michele Fischer]

For those who find their own tenants, maybe particularly for low income units, do you include any lifestyle questions in the application or screening process? For example, info on whether they own a lawnmower, how they tend to interact with neighbors, if they like to have a lot of visitors, housekeeping standards, etc? If so, can you please share? I'm struggling with a few current tenants on these softer issues. Explaining my expectations at agreement signing obviously wasn't enough, trying to figure out how to beef it up on my end or weed out on their end. Asking about smoking is discriminatory, how about these topics? TIA for input!

[Michael D.]

Jon K.,

A person can be denied for this reason. If horders are a protected class, then you cannot deny somebody because they are a horder. That doesn't mean you can't deny somebody for causing damage to a previous rental, or evicting somebody who is causing an unsafe condition in your house.

For example, age is a protected class. I can't fire somebody just because they are old. But I CAN fire somebody for falling asleep on the job, regardless of what their age is.

Note: I'm not a lawyer. Check with yours.

Keep the focus on the undesirable behavior, not what the person is.

Michael