Background Check for Apartment in Philadelphia

[Randall Justus]

Hello BP Folks, I'm curious how more experienced landlords might handle this situation.  I have a Class B apartment that I am renting out in a Class C neighborhood (West Kensington of Philadelphia) that I have been having issues renting out.  I found one guy who is interested, has a 600 credit score, makes 3x the rent, and is a truck driver.  My issue is that the background check uncovered that he has a First Office DUI that he is supposed to go to his pretrial at just before his desired move in date.  When speaking to him about it he said that his company knows about it and is willing to move him to working in the cooler where he would actually get more OT.

I don't have any concern about the DUI, but a truck driver would likely lose their job (livelihood) and I'm not sure how I would go about verifying his statement.  Any advise experience would be appreciated.

[Reed Vennel]

I'd be hesitant to deny based on any pending criminal charges, but can definitely see your concern.  I think I'd approach this as normal income verification, although I might want to get his written permission to mention the pending charge to ask the employer about the pending DUI in case they don't know and you accidentally get him fired.  I usually contact employers and ask a few questions to verify their income is reasonably expected to be stable.  Here's my questions I did from an income verification last week for a therapist joining an established practice.  The last question could easily be adapted to address your specific concerns.