Three Applicants-One has Good Credit, Second Fair, and Third Bad with 4 Collections

[Esther Kim]

Two of the applicants are mother and adult son, with a child that is a minor. The third applicant is a friend.

The mother alone has good credit and makes income that is 3 x rent. However, when running credit, the third applicant's came up with 4 collections (one as recent as 10/23 for an Apartment). I informed mother and son that I would lease to the two of them only, but they are trying to persuade me to bring in the third applicant, stating he went through a bad divorce and they want to help him out.

I am inclined to say NO especially since on the application and on email he agreed that there was nothing negative in his credit application and he had a credit score of more than 600.

Thoughts?