Rent To Armed Forces Or Not?
At the risk of being villified here, I am going to ask the following question.
We have an available rental and have been approached by an Armed Forces Professional who has had tours of duty outside the country and wishes to take advantage of some specials that we offer to tenants who sign a 15 month lease. Now, we all know that deployment of an armed forces professional is an automatic out from any lease. The specials we offer will only make sense economically if the full 15 month rent is collected.
My questions is, Can we put a clause in the lease stating that the cost of the specials will be deducted from the security deposit if the lease is not completed, even for deployment. Is this against the law or the "Armed Forces Act" I keep hearing so much about? Can this open us up to discrimination or violations of the fair housing act?
I am just looking at this from the business point of view. If I take away the specials for this particular prospective tenant only, I know we are violating the fair housing act, but if I leave them in we could potentially be sitting on a big loss. From my understanding, the possibility of being deployed in a 15 month period is pretty high for active duty personnel, right?
Opinions please? Has anyone had to deal with this (or a similar) situation before? How is the best way to handle this?
Thanks in advance for your help.
JS
I would just change your terms.
Let the tenant decide if they want free TV or Cable. May also give you a hint if they are really a long term tenant if they refuse the offer.
Offer:
Landlord will supply a TV and provide cable service. The cost will be (the price of TV and so much a month for cable) to be paid when the tenants move if less than 15 months. After 15 months the charges will be waived and considered free to the tenants.