Child support money as rent

[Pedro Jean]

I am renting out a 3 bedroom apartment. I am asking $1,150 for it. I’ve requested that prospects have to make 2.5X that amount in order to be qualified. A lady (with 4 kids) is interested in the apartment. Her income is only $2000 per month plus she gets $1000 in child support. My question is: is it ok to use child support money as income or not because if she makes $2000 in income, she doesn’t make $3000 to meet my requirements? Any suggestions will be appreciated??

[Kyle J.]

You can still count it since it's legitimate income. Banks would count it towards qualifying for a mortgage.

You would probably want to take a look at the court order though to verify that it's actually been ordered, and not just something she's hoping to get. I'd also want to see a bank statement to verify that she's also receiving it because, even if it's been ordered, it's not going to help pay the rent unless it's actually being paid.