chraging more rent if bad credit?

Question

someone wants to charge more rent because applicant credit is bad. Is it legal under fair housing act?

This criteria is just based on risk and not race, religion age or sex.

Eric James · Answer

Charging more for greater risk is what lenders do.  The greater the risk, the higher the rate.  I don't see this as necessarily out of the question. In my limited experience, even most people with poor credit will pay to maintain a roof over their head if at all possible.  I don't know about the legality of increasing the rental rate you may have advertised.  Where I have had a rental property for the past 7 years there are very few renters with good credit.  My rents have been slightly on the high side, but I have rented to people who would probably be turned away by the large, corporately run apartment complexes.  I have had almost no problems with tenants paying. YMMV.

Sam Shueh · Answer

No, negotiate a larger deposit.

Mike H. · Answer

I don't think charging more rent is the way to go. If a landlord has a credit score requirement, they're basically saying that someone above this score will make their payments and someone below it likely won't.

So why charge more to someone that likely won't?

What I would do is ask for a higher security deposit maybe. That way they would be covering more of your risk if they default.  I don't see that 50/mo more is really mitigating your risk much.

And if the house was in a county where evictions took over 2 months, then I wouldn't make the exception for any reason. That $50 a month isn't going to help you one bit if you're eating 2 or 3 or 4 months of unpaid rent plus the attorney's fees.

Megan Moody · Answer

I agree with the posters above. Stick with whatever credit standard you use and make a decision based on that. I think asking for more $ from someone who has a poor repayment history is asking for trouble .

chraging more rent if bad credit?

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