Turning Down A New Tenant
I have always had good applicants whenever I have had a vacancy so I have never had to turn anyone down until now.
I received an application from a prospective tenant. I had some questions on it so I called her. During our conversation she told me that she had never been arrested. I went on our state criminal database and punched in her name and DOB and it showed she has a misdemeanor conviction for check forgery.
Can I legally turn her down because of this? If so, should I mention this in a rejection letter to her? How would you handle this?
Did you run her credit? Did anything show up there?
What is your normal criteria for approval?
Did everything else come up in good standing- (landlord referral, credit, employment)?
Hello Ceinvests,
My normal process is to look into the MN criminal data base (this is free). Call their listed references, verify employment, and check credit.
This is the first time I have found a criminal record so I stopped my review. Even though it is only a misdemeanor, she was convicted of check forgery (this scares me). But what really gets me boiled is that she told me she has never been arrested.
She does not work - she receives SSDI and housing assistance.
I really do not want to rent to her but I want to turn her down legally and I am not sure what I need to do/prove to do so.
Easy solution. Turn her down because she lied on the application. If you have a good application it should have a clause about being able to disqualify if the statements are not true, accurate and complete. [ Edited by d_random on Date 03/26/2009 ]
Thanks for the advice, guys. I will call her and keep it simple. I do not have any other applicants, yet...but I have not advertised yet. I would rather keep it empty than rent to her. Thanks again.
You need to send her your rejection in writing. Calling her over the phone alone is not enough.
JS.
Couple thoughts--
1. Did you collect an application fee?
If so, return it to her.
2. Did you agree to accept housing?
3. She might not have been arrested for check forgery, right? So it might not have been a lie.
4. I agree to call her. Better to be uncomfortable than have a letter to haunt you. All you have to do is communicate and move on.
== Check forgery is not a protected class.
I always appreciate new information. Can someone please let me know why writing a letter to deny someone (even if you pulled credit or not) is not advisable? Someone wrote earlier that it could "come back and haunt you" and I would like to understand this.
I always write a letter when I reject someone for whatever reason. Is this a bed idea?
JS.
It was me. I wrote it because:
* right now I have a low threshold of trust in what is right in landlord self protection.
* The original poster here had not processed the application, does not have experience of the subject (turning down an applicant),
* I feel that time is of essence in communicating with prospects. Most people just want to know whether to keep looking or not. Simple communication.
* A poorly written letter is worse than an uncomfortable conversation!
* I am not feeling the love from lenders, legal, state, county right now as a landlord!
You clearly have a consistent process that you follow. == no hauntings!
So do I, with the exception of rarely doing a letter. I usually pre-qualify people, so most people do not need to be rejected because we never get to that point. And if we do, we have communicated so much and they decided to move forward hoping I will ignore something they did not tell me. But that is me; I have experience in lousy prospects and uncomfortable phone conversations. =I have a consistent process.
Rule 1~~ Consider your audience.