Wil you rent to this couple?

[Courtney Nguyen]

Hi BP community,

Today I received the application for this couple (with 1 kid, 2 small dogs) whose income is above my criteria of 3.5 x rent (rent is $2200/month), both have good credit (husband 799, wife 736), both have employment checked out, both current and previous landlords said they are very good tenant.  However, on the husband's background check there are 2 liens jump out:  one is state tax lien from State of CA in the amount of $14K, one is the federal tax lien from IRS in the amount of $65K.  When my agent asked their agent they said they are currently having their attorney working on it and should settle for way less than the amounts shown and that it should not affect their ability to pay rent.  My dilemma is I don't doubt their ability to pay at all, but that they don't want to pay others.  If they didn't pay their tax to the government then how are they going to pay me rent?  And how could they owe both state and federal that much but the husband still has a credit score of 799 (the liens are only showing on his report, not hers)?  Am I missing something here?  I am puzzled here, everything else looks good on them, except for the liens so I don't know if I should rent to them or not.  If it were you, would you rent to this couple?

Thanks for any input.

[Greg M.]

The simple answer as to why they have high credit scores with tax liens is that tax liens don't affect credit scores anymore. And the liens could only be on his report because it might be his debt before marriage or it could be business related where only he owned the business.

I wouldn't worry too much about the liens. If they do owe it, the government is going to work out a payment plan where they get paid, but the people can still afford to live. They aren't going to lose 100% of their paychecks to the government.