All Forum Posts by: Edward F. Mahoney III

When screening tenants do you pay for a credit/background check yourself then? 

Yes you are correct. No gray area when it comes to landlords charging app fees in MA. Thats definitely not allowed. When a third part gets involved is where I found it to be a bit confusing!  

I have had similar conversations and seems that its best to stay on the safe side like you mentioned. Not worth the risk. Thank you for your response! 

Hi everyone! I am a fairly new to real estate and currently in the process of finding a property to house hack in Massachusetts (North Shore Area). I have been studying up on tenant screening laws and cannot seem to find a solid answer on if it is legally allowed to have a third party site like apartments.com to charge an application fee. I know that since the ruling in 2014 that it is unlawful to charge any upfront fees except for those pertaining to the first and last month’s rent, along with security deposit and a lost key fee. Since a site like apartments.com makes a prospective tenant pay an application fee for the background and credit check would this be allowed or not? It seems to be a gray area and would like to use apartments.com when I do find a property for tenant screening without having to pay myself for these credit checks and background checks. The way I see it is that since I (The Landlord) would not actually receive the money and its the applicant who is paying for a credit report themselves and allowing me to see the results that this would be legal according to Massachusetts Law. Does anyone have a consensus on this? Thank you in advance!