Thoughts on a bad tenant list, & is this legal?

Question

Here’s my possible idea. Any body thought about a bad tenant black list, & is this legal? Hoping one of you JD folks chimes in on legality here.

If every body here listed each tenant that was a problem, maybe even with a coded issues list, like a 1 for the constant caller with very minor issues, who pays great, all the way to 10 for the had to have police remove them again after they broke back in again.

Probably need dates too, I don’t care about a drunken ceiling fan breakage in 1985. Fyi, that one was me. Haha

We have a huge number of landlords on here, so it should have lots of data quickly.

BP management-is this a service you could support?

JD Martin · Answer

No way is BP going to support such an endeavor. The legality of it would be at least debatable, and it would definitely open the holder up to all kinds of potential litigation.

Steven Westlake · Answer

@Charles Carillo - here’s where the court records are lacking, i weight the cost of lawyers, amounts owed and odds of collecting, and often don’t bother because in the past i wasted money and time to get a judgment for a few hundred dallors and then another trip to court when they don’t pay, and yet another trip to court to Garnish wages, then either company just fires them or they quit, and you start back over again, trying to figure out who the next employer is. Usually the judge lets them keep minimum wage, so if they make 8.50 hour and minimum wage is 7.25, then you would get 1.25 x hours worked, so if thats 40 hours you would get $50 per week after dropping $100 to $200 for the lawyer, and they quit before the next check comes.

Most don’t have bank accounts either.

One work around is to require a higher income to get in, therefore making it harder to swap jobs, or a larger deposit up front.

In short run a credit check, require min 1 year on job, i have had way less issues with tenants i screen, than those I inherited, so my next new place, I’ll drop all tents as soon as legally possible, then offer to let them reapply, at current market rates of course.

Most don’t have bank accounts either.

One work around is to require a higher income to get in, therefore making it harder to swap jobs, or a larger deposit up front.

In short run a credit check, require min 1 year on job, i have had way less issues with tenants i screen, than those I inherited, so my next new place, I’ll drop all tents as soon as legally possible, then offer to let them reapply, at current market rates of course.

Steven Westlake · Answer

@JD Martin thanks

Steven Westlake · Answer

@Charles Carillo thanks

Charles Carillo · Answer

@Steven Westlake

Not sure about the legality and how you could make it uniform however; major issues can be researched by running the potential tenant through court records which is what I imagine most landlords do and what new landlords should do on the current tenants in the property when they are purchasing it.

Thoughts on a bad tenant list, & is this legal?

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