I get so many applicants who can cry and whine and play the system and get various govt’s and their tribe to pay one or more of FMR, LMR, and Deposit. With nothing of their own in the deal, they flake out more often than not. Not to sound judgmental; I understand that their plight is sad and due somewhat to lousy upbringing and so on. But is it legal for me to require at applicants to be able to actually hold a job long enough so I know they can at least have a semblance of a responsible life?
It is illegal in some states, but these types weed themselves out with standard criteria.
But is it legal for me to require at applicants to be able to actually hold a job long enough so I know they can at least have a semblance of a responsible life?
It is legal in Ohio and I WOULDN’T LIVE ANYWHERE WHERE THE WHINEY DO-GOODER SOCIALISTS MAKE IT ILLEGAL!!! Geesh, when you can’t require someone to be able to pay their bills, SOMETHING IS BADLY WRONG!
Mike
No way. Thats nuts. If they do not have a job, or meet your household income requirements (e.g. 3x gross monthly rent is a good standard/minimum), then they should not be approved.
Something was bothering me about my post and I did some research. This is a stretch, but I have seen judges make even bigger leaps, especially when they want to punish someone. Requiring a job would eliminate the disabled who don’t work from the available applicant pool and could be seen as proxy for disability, which is a protected class at the Federal level. Rejecting the applicant for insufficient income to pay the rent is one thing. Rejecting him because he doesn’t have a job could create a problem. Deadbeats who abuse the system weed themselves out because they get evicted and don’t pay their bills.
If we can’t require the tenants to have a job, then banks should not be able to either for loans. How much sense would that make? :banghead
in the first place, why approve tenants who cannot pay their bills? They should be responsible enough. I think requiring them to have a job is not a problem. If you fored them to have a job, then I think that’s another level.
Yes, I believe it could be regarded as discrimination against a prospective tenant based upon their source of income. Would you want to be told “no” if your income came from stock or real estate investments? Your application requirements should ask for legal, verifiable proof of income, not necessarily a job.
I would not buy into any stories that prospective tenants tell you. Many will give truly tragic accounts of a death in the family, medical problem or whatever, but they often times only use these tragic events as an excuse for a lifetime of bad credit.
Senior citizens tend to live in rental properties for a long time, they usually take care of them, and they probably will not invite motorcycle gangs over for a keg party or start a meth lab in the garage (but their grandkids might). Often times these folks are on a fixed income like a pension or social security.
Remember treating prospective tenants differently paints a big bullseye on your head for a discrimination lawsuit. So it is not illegal to have application requirements which will weed out the dirt bags.
For example:
Applicant must have legal, verifiable proof of income at least 2.5 times the rental amount.
Applicant must have the abilty to afford rent based upon applicant’s debt to income ratio.
This is a great discussion. I am going through the process of putting together my rental criteria/application for my first rental property. I had a requirement stating that the renter had to have a job for 2 years. Now I am going to update it to reflect the need to have verifiable income, not a job.
Thank you guys - good thinking…
Have a great weekend!
Yep, don’t forget those people on disability. I’m about to have three of them in our building.
Actually discrimination? It varies by state. Some will not allow you to discriminate about source of income, and some don’t care.
I’ll take all sorts of people without a job-- the retired, the SS recipient, a student with grants and co-signer, the disabled with assistance. I will and have taken newcomers moving into the area with large savings accounts but not a job yet.
I require proof of a reliable source of income. Credit report is part of the screening, and you’ll be able to identify and reject a real deadbeat by their credit report.
Those who get assistance with move-in costs and have no jobs probably can’t show a steady reliable source of income, let alone a passing credit report.
I can legally reject welfare recipients, but in some states, you can’t reject source of income. I don’t actually reject for “source of income”; I just don’t do leases and all governnment assistance programs require leases.