I'm currently screening applicants for our first rental property. I have a couple that applied. His credit and background is great. Hers is horrible. Can I deny the whole situation because of one applicant (I"m in California)? They applied as co-applicants. If he came back to me and said he wanted to apply alone, I don't think that she wouldn't be staying there and that would be a breach of my lease. I just don't want him to come back at me and say I unfairly denied him because she didn't qualify. Just want to be sure I'm doing things legally correct. Thanks for any input.
Rental Property Investor · Northern, CA · Member since 2012 · 5k+ posts · 5k+ votes
6y
Legally, you’re allowed to apply your applicant screening criteria to each applicant in California. This comes up all the time when I’m screening applicants. Not with credit scores, but with evictions.
I have a “no prior eviction” policy and I’ll often find that one applicant has a prior eviction. Even if the other applicant would have otherwise qualified, the prior eviction on just the one applicant ends up disqualifying the entire couple/group’s application.
You definitely don’t have to accept the entire couple/group just because one person in the couple/group happens to meet your minimum criteria.
I'm currently screening applicants for our first rental property. I have a couple who are currently living together and have 3 small children (not sure if they're biologically his) that applied. They are not married. His credit and background is great. Hers is horrible. Can I deny the whole situation because of one applicant (I'm in California)? They applied as co-applicants. If he came back to me and said he wanted to apply alone, I don't think that she wouldn't be staying there and that would be a breach of my lease. I just don't want him to come back at me and say I unfairly denied him because she didn't qualify. Just want to be sure I'm doing things legally correct. Thanks for any input.
Also, when you discuss (with anybody) why these applicants weren't approved, do *not* talk about their marriage status and especially do *not* opine as to whether or not their kids are biological. If one person on the application doesn't meet your credit criteria, you have a defensible, economic reason to reject the application.
That said, I'm not a lawyer! This is just my layman's understanding.
I completely understand. Their marriage status or their children's status makes no difference to me. I only included it because I didn't know if under certain circumstances the state may see them as married even though they don't have a license (common law) and therefore wouldn't be able to deny based on an individual in that relationship/"marriage". My reason for denial is completely based on poor credit history. Thank you for you input, its greatly appreciated.