Potential tenant with a recent late payment

[Carlos Romano]

Hey All, 

Without going into too much detail about a potential tenant, i'm wondering how to evaluate the reaseon a recent (July 2023) late payment for an applicant. 

The combined applicants (2 adults) have 4.7x rent, some normal debts (student loans, car loan, a cc or two) but my concern is that one of the parties has a late payment on a travel trailer reported July 2023. This party is also the weaker of the two on credit and DTI.

Is there a standard practice for asking the tenant about this? Overall I think i'm fine to accept their applications, but I want to get some details on this late payment as its super recent. 

Thanks in advance! 

[Marcus Johnson]

Are they married?   The reason I ask is that if they are legally married, then the debt is the responsibility of both of them.   If not, then that tells me the one party isn't very good with money management and will probably be late with their rent.  Do you have other options for tenants?