Remember, there is no perfect tenant. If you keep holding out for the absolute best tenant, your rental unit may sit on the market for too long! This is probably the fairest way to go if all of the applicants are equally qualified. Whether a tenant is qualified or not is up to you, but you do have to maintain the same selection criteria for all tenants. In other words, it is illegal to deny one tenant because their credit isn’t high enough and then select a different applicant with similar credit.
This is a slightly less popular option because it can be hard to weigh multiple factors against one another. Let’s say one applicant has a credit score of 720 but an income of $30,000. Is that better than another applicant with a 690 but an income of $60,000? Many landlords have specific exclusionary criteria. For example, you might choose to never rent to anyone who has been evicted in the past 3 years, or to never rent to anyone with a credit score under a certain threshold.
If you plan on doing this, make a note of it in your classified ads for the unit that you’ll allow a bidding war if you receive multiple applications from qualified tenants. Do not lie about having a tenant willing to pay a certain amount if they don’t exist. This likely qualifies as fraud depending on where you live.
Race Skin color National origin Religion Sex, gender, or sexual orientation Family status Disability
For example, in New York, you can’t ask applicants if they’re a US citizen. In New York City, there’s a threshold for how much you can increase rent between tenants. [7] X Research source Every state and city has their own little legal nuances, so learn your local laws thoroughly.
Include all of your requirements, rules, and selection criteria when you create your rental application and agreement.
You never know when someone is going to accuse you of breaking the law, so documentation is key.
Whether you’re required to explain why a tenant didn’t get the place or not depends on where you live. As a rule of thumb, keep it vague unless there’s a concrete reason (like a credit score or problem with their rental history). If you run a credit check, you’re legally required to provide a copy to applicants. [11] X Trustworthy Source Federal Trade Commission Website with up-to-date information for consumers from the Federal Trade Commisson Go to source
If you’ve never rented an apartment before and you don’t want to craft an application from scratch, look online for a template that works in your state or city. Alternatively, you can ask a real estate attorney if they’ve got a legally-sound copy you can use.
A lot of landlords use the apartments. com background check system, since it pulls credit scores at the same time. Credit and background checks cost money. Most landlords pass this cost on to applicants in the form of an application fee (usually $25-50).
Note that in some states and cities, it’s illegal to deny housing on the basis of a criminal record. In some jurisdictions, it’s okay to deny an applicant for certain types of felonies. Look up your local laws to be sure. If you do end up turning an applicant away because of what a former landlord said, you may want to be vague about it and not bring up the previous landlord’s name, just to be safe.
In general, it’s best to not be too specific when letting people know why they didn’t get a unit. You could just say, “I’m sorry, we rent based on credit and another applicant had a higher score,” or something along those lines. [16] X Research source If you aren’t giving someone a unit because of their credit report, you should consider giving them a copy of the report and explaining the issue.
