How to reject an applicant for rent?
Investor · Mesa, AZ · Member since 2016 · 50 posts · 7 votes
I have a room for rent and I happen to know that the person who wants to rent it would not be a good tenant because they have had not paid their rent in the past and cause problems for other tenants.
It was not documented as far as I can tell, how else do I go about rejecting this application?
The source telling me this is a close friend who lived with her at one point.
Legally I want to stay out of trouble.
I asked for a list previous landlords, and she did not provide the previous landlord that she had issues.
Thanks BP!
Here's a list of reasons to deny an applicant. I believe I pulled it from a Washington State attorney's website offering it as a free resource. Should be valuable anywhere though. Hope this helps. Always check with local laws as things change all the time. I believe you can not deny based off of criminal history alone now as long as it was not a major crime?? (something I need to brush up on)
1. Unsatisfactory references from landlords, employers and/or personal references. These could include reports of repeated disturbance of their neighbors’ peaceful enjoyment of their homes; reports of gambling, prostitution, drug dealing or drug manufacturing; damage to the property beyond normal wear and tear; reports of violence or threats to landlords or neighbors; allowing people not listed on the lease or rental agreement to live in the property; failure to give proper notice when vacating the property; or a landlord who would not rent to them again.
2. Evictions.
3. Frequent moves.You have to decide what constitutes frequent moves and apply the same criteria to every applicant.
4. Bad credit report.If a report shows they are not current with any bill, have been turned over to a collection agency, have been sued for a debt, or have a judgment for a debt, that is grounds to reject. These do not have to be debts connected in any way with housing.
5. Too short a time on the job.As with frequent moves, you have to decide what too short a time is and apply the same criteria to every applicant.
6. Too new to the area.There is nothing to say you have to rent to people who have just moved to town. Be careful, though, many times these would be excellent tenants and the time and long distance call expense of checking them out could pay big dividends.
7. Smokers.Some newspapers mistakenly believe that smokers are a protected “handicapped” class. They will never be. The tobacco companies would not allow it. Do do so would be to admit that tobacco and nicotine are addicting. Industry lobbyists would be sure to fight that idea tooth and nail. So you can safely discriminate against people who smoke. Newspapers will not accept ads that say “no smokers,” but they will accept ads that say “no smoking.”
8. No verifiable source of income.
9. Too many vehicles.Lots of cars can be a real source of irritation to neighbors and make the entire neighborhood or apartment complex look bad. Chances are, if they have more than one vehicle for every adult they spend a lot of time broken and being fixed. That means they could be in pieces in the front yard or parking lot.
10. Too many people for the property. Be extremely careful with this. Before the familial status protection clause of the Fair Housing Act, you could discriminate on this basis without fear of any problems. Not any more. Now the same criteria must be applied without regard to the age of the inhabitant. Be sure it is applied equally to all applicants. Check your state’s Landlord-Tenant Law.
11. Drug users. They must be current drug users. If they are in a drug treatment program and no longer use drugs, the Federal Government considers them handicapped and protected by the Fair Housing Act.
12. Pets.
13. Any evidence of illegal activity.You must be able to come up with some kind of satisfactory evidence. I don’t know what that would be, every case would be different. Certainly a letter from the police department warning a previous landlord of their illegal activity and threatening to close the property is considered sufficient evidence.
14. History of late rental payments.
15. Insufficient income.You must set up objective criteria applied equally to each applicant. Insufficient income could reasonably be if the scheduled rent exceeded 35% of their gross monthly income.For example, if the rent is $600, their gross monthly income must be at least $1714.29. The formula is: Acceptable income= scheduled rent divided by income ratio. You can require proof of all income. Be careful, though, if you are willing to accept only one member of a married couple to supply the total dollar income, you must be willing to accept the same of unmarried, co-tenants that share the housing. Under Fair Housing law you cannot require that unmarried people meet different income requirements than married people.
16. Too many debts.Even if their gross income is sufficient, they may have so many other debts that they would be hard pressed to make all the payments. A rule of thumb might be that all contracted debts, including rent, cannot exceed 50% of their gross income. Contracted debts would be such things as credit card payments, car payments, loans, etc. Those would not be cable TV, water and garbage, telephone, or other utilities.
17. Conviction of a crime which was a threat to property in the past five years. Included in this could be drunk driving convictions, burglary convictions, robbery convictions, and other such misbehaviors.
18. Conviction for the manufacture or distribution of a controlled substance in the past five years.The best way to proceed is to post a list of the acceptable rental criteria and hand it to each applicant.
Its up to you to perform an investigation and chose the most qualified tenant. If you have other options, simply chose who you believe is best qualified. If they're the only applicant, maybe get a written statement from the previous landlord and deny them based off reference. Don't feel like you are obligated to place them. Prove they lied to you, reject them and move on with someone who will pay and treat the place well. Good luck!
Tell the applicant that they need to apply through a tenant screening service that you should already be using. They pay the fee to that co., and the company will tell if they recommend them.
Then follow the recommendation.
So put someone you know isnt qualified in your rental then? I dont know why you would risk paying out thousands in lost rent and eviction when you know before placing them they are not qualified.
Sure, anyone can lie including the applicant. So, yes I am going to err on the side that benefits me by not placing a bad tenant in my property. Avoid the problem, deny them based on objective information and move on
I said in the previous post "maybe get a written statement from the previous landlord and deny them based off reference"
I think its incredibly important to weed out the bad tenants any way possible. I got burned by a tenant paying late and damaging the unit. We payed thousands in lost rent and damages and finally did cash for keys which got them to leave. That was the best day because finally the bleeding stopped and we could recoup.
Wish everyone luck!
I do the its not you answer. Something like.... Hi, I wanted to let you know that we have decided to go with someone else. good luck with your search. thanks.
Some might ask WHY? I just respond that someone applied before them that qualified. Try hard not to say anything to them why it was their fault.....too many times they will try argue/discuss it.
Of course, if you are denying them because of their credit report, I believe the law requires you show them the report you pulled.
Just don't answer her calls or emails. You owe this person nothing. You are only required to give a written rejection letter if you did a credit report and rejected based on something in the report. Also, is this a room in your residence that you are renting? If so, you can legally discriminate anyway, not that you are. You don't want to cause your friend problems if she was good enough to warn you.
You decline her based on feedback from a previous roommate. The truth is a powerful thing so long as you totally trust the friend telling you she didn't pay her rent in the past. That is part of the process when you are the landlord, investigating past rent payment history. Get a written statement from your friend to CYA, you're good.
Here's a list of reasons to deny an applicant. I believe I pulled it from a Washington State attorney's website offering it as a free resource. Should be valuable anywhere though. Hope this helps. Always check with local laws as things change all the time. I believe you can not deny based off of criminal history alone now as long as it was not a major crime?? (something I need to brush up on)
1. Unsatisfactory references from landlords, employers and/or personal references. These could include reports of repeated disturbance of their neighbors’ peaceful enjoyment of their homes; reports of gambling, prostitution, drug dealing or drug manufacturing; damage to the property beyond normal wear and tear; reports of violence or threats to landlords or neighbors; allowing people not listed on the lease or rental agreement to live in the property; failure to give proper notice when vacating the property; or a landlord who would not rent to them again.
2. Evictions.
3. Frequent moves.You have to decide what constitutes frequent moves and apply the same criteria to every applicant.
4. Bad credit report.If a report shows they are not current with any bill, have been turned over to a collection agency, have been sued for a debt, or have a judgment for a debt, that is grounds to reject. These do not have to be debts connected in any way with housing.
5. Too short a time on the job.As with frequent moves, you have to decide what too short a time is and apply the same criteria to every applicant.
6. Too new to the area.There is nothing to say you have to rent to people who have just moved to town. Be careful, though, many times these would be excellent tenants and the time and long distance call expense of checking them out could pay big dividends.
7. Smokers.Some newspapers mistakenly believe that smokers are a protected “handicapped” class. They will never be. The tobacco companies would not allow it. Do do so would be to admit that tobacco and nicotine are addicting. Industry lobbyists would be sure to fight that idea tooth and nail. So you can safely discriminate against people who smoke. Newspapers will not accept ads that say “no smokers,” but they will accept ads that say “no smoking.”
8. No verifiable source of income.
9. Too many vehicles.Lots of cars can be a real source of irritation to neighbors and make the entire neighborhood or apartment complex look bad. Chances are, if they have more than one vehicle for every adult they spend a lot of time broken and being fixed. That means they could be in pieces in the front yard or parking lot.
10. Too many people for the property. Be extremely careful with this. Before the familial status protection clause of the Fair Housing Act, you could discriminate on this basis without fear of any problems. Not any more. Now the same criteria must be applied without regard to the age of the inhabitant. Be sure it is applied equally to all applicants. Check your state’s Landlord-Tenant Law.
11. Drug users. They must be current drug users. If they are in a drug treatment program and no longer use drugs, the Federal Government considers them handicapped and protected by the Fair Housing Act.
12. Pets.
13. Any evidence of illegal activity.You must be able to come up with some kind of satisfactory evidence. I don’t know what that would be, every case would be different. Certainly a letter from the police department warning a previous landlord of their illegal activity and threatening to close the property is considered sufficient evidence.
14. History of late rental payments.
15. Insufficient income.You must set up objective criteria applied equally to each applicant. Insufficient income could reasonably be if the scheduled rent exceeded 35% of their gross monthly income.For example, if the rent is $600, their gross monthly income must be at least $1714.29. The formula is: Acceptable income= scheduled rent divided by income ratio. You can require proof of all income. Be careful, though, if you are willing to accept only one member of a married couple to supply the total dollar income, you must be willing to accept the same of unmarried, co-tenants that share the housing. Under Fair Housing law you cannot require that unmarried people meet different income requirements than married people.
16. Too many debts.Even if their gross income is sufficient, they may have so many other debts that they would be hard pressed to make all the payments. A rule of thumb might be that all contracted debts, including rent, cannot exceed 50% of their gross income. Contracted debts would be such things as credit card payments, car payments, loans, etc. Those would not be cable TV, water and garbage, telephone, or other utilities.
17. Conviction of a crime which was a threat to property in the past five years. Included in this could be drunk driving convictions, burglary convictions, robbery convictions, and other such misbehaviors.
18. Conviction for the manufacture or distribution of a controlled substance in the past five years.The best way to proceed is to post a list of the acceptable rental criteria and hand it to each applicant.
always blame it on the office that does not exist and the Tenant asked why
You do not know because they do not disclose any detail and your job is to submit the application and wait for reply
Never ever disclose that you are an owner, you are only a assistant property manager for that location
@Justin Wilcox I totally agree with @Rich N.. you can never go wrong with that. Not violating anyone's right,
To expand on @Josh Anderson, if you deny housing to somebody based on information you received from a 3rd party, you must provide the applicant with an Adverse Action Letter that tells them the source of the information that caused your denial, and contact information for the source. This is required under federal law, the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The goal is so that if the information is incorrect, the applicant can go to the source and get it corrected. The advantage is they don't argue with you about accuracy, they argue with the person who told you.
You can google Adverse Action Letter Tenant and find lots of examples.
Justin...There is absolutely nothing that limits you to the rental history from only the last landlord.
I agree with the simple and clear statement that Max Tanenbaum posted; no further information need be provided to the applicant.
Gail
@Justin Wilcox. A lot of good advice here. I wouldn't go as far as to lie and say an applicant got in earlier, but you can definitely say a more qualified applicant was approved, as long as that's true because of credit score or better references. In this case, it would be great to just have a credit score for the tenant you approve and the one you don't, so you have objective numbers if it does come down to a worst-case-scenerio legal issue.
Learn your state landlord tenant codes before taking any advice. The codes will or will not state what is required to be included in a rejection notification. If it does not state that you must tell a applicant why they are rejected you never ever give a reason. If you wish you could state that a more qualified applicant was accepted but this also is not necessary.
All the answers are in your state codes. Learn them and you will be able to operate your business properly. If you do not bother to take the time to learn you will be operating blind or depending on random "opinions" of others, like myself, which may be completely unreliable. All of the advice so far provided may be excellent or completely useless, you will not know until you learn your state codes.
Thank you BP for all of your help! She put the pressure on me last night about an hour after she sent over her references saying she had to know right away. Seeing as it is Sunday, I am not inclined to do any research today.
I will message her back on Monday and let her know that I have decided to go a different direction with that room.
BP thanks again for your contributions!
I just send a link to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K7fCQlUhj0
@Justin Wilcox, sometimes I decide to leave my rental window open for a few weeks before making a decision. This gives me a better pool to choose from. On some occasions I have said I must run the applications by a partner or a consultant before making a final decision. I actually do that sometimes. I do not always do that. During the winter months I move a lot faster on applications than I do in June. Being in a big hurry can be a red flag if they do not have a bonafide reason.
I've quickly skimmed the responses you have so far, and I don't see this tip - Try to cross reference the credit report against the prior addresses and dates listed on the application. If they don't match that can be something substantial to follow-up on. I usually try to contact the owners of the extra addresses to see if I can find any additional information.
This one shouldn't be too hard at all (knock on wood).
For the laws in the states I operate in you must provide a written reason.
Even if it isn't documented, you can say that she provided false / missing information if they ever ask. (Most rentals don't have a strong paper trail for mom and pop shops.)
I would keep record of why in your personal notes.
You can simply google "Adverse Action [the state of your rental] pdf".
Below is a sample of what they tend to look like:
@Justin Wilcox Run a complete credit, criminal, eviction, income check on the candidate. You will find a legal reason to deny them. I guarantee it.
Dear prospective tenant, I understand you need to know immediately. Unfortunately I am not prepared to make a decision at this time. I have additional checks I need to run on all of the applicants. I understand that you do not have the luxury of waiting so I will encourage you to find another property that can handle immediate occupancy. Thank you for taking the time to apply.