Re: sec dep - Landlord Forum thread 332462

Re: sec dep by CCRider (CA) on March 22, 2015 @11:17

LOL, no, can't treat anyone differently. I did run their credit, and had them give me proof they were students in good standing.

If you don't want to accept students, you can have a rule that you don't accept any co-signers. That's a legal way around having to rent to students.

I actually didn't accept co-signers, because I only wanted to deal with the actual tenant. Co-signers are a pain, honestly. You have to send copies of all notices to them, and your only real incentive to get a tenant to behave is the threat of eviction and bad credit. The tenant can still misbehave. Sure, you have two people you can sue now, but what you really want is a good tenant, not more people to sue. In my opinion. Doing it this way helps the student be more mature, and keeps Mommy out of your life lol.

I told them I don't care where the money comes from, but I only contract with tenants. And, if they don't pay the rent (from whatever source) they get kicked out, and their credit will be hurt.

Another way to deal with potentially noisy young students or other possible problem tenants, is to use only month-to-month contracts, which I also did because that's what the owner I worked for wanted. At first I fought him on this, but he was right. It's a very easy way to get rid of a problem tenant. Just give them 30 days notice to move out. Then, you don't have to go through the court eviction process most times.

For instance, I rented to a woman with a kid who I had a feeling would be a problem, but didn't want fair housing to come down on me if I rejected her. Rented to her, and sure enough, baby-daddy moved in and they started disturbing everyone. Gave her a couple warnings, then gave her 30 days notice to move for breaching the lease by disturbing tenants. I didn't even want to argue with her about how often the guy was there, even though he was obviously living there. I just kicked her out based on the fact the cops had been called several times, and she'd received warnings about disturbing other tenants, and the noise continued.

So, if you feel "stuck" as far as renting to someone because of potential fair housing issues, if you are using month-to-month agreements, you can go ahead and rent to them, and then you can just give them 30 days notice and get rid of them.

But, of course, you have to use month-to-month agreements with everyone, so you aren't treating a particular "class" differently. Once in a while someone will fool you and only move in for a month or two. But most of my tenants stayed at least a year, and usually several years.

And if a tenant is nervous that you'll raise the rent and it looks like a deal-breaker for a good tenant, just put in the contract that you will not raise the rent for one year, if they're still there. Normally, they love this. They get the freedom to leave if they want to for whatever reason, but don't have to worry about the rent going up for a year.

I know these things aren't attractive or work for all landlords, but they worked for us in California.

[ Reply ] [ Return to forum ]

Re: sec dep by J (FL) on March 22, 2015 @12:47	[ Reply ]

@CC Thanks, but...I don't think it's illegal to charge someone extra security they don't meet your basic requirements at least not in Florida....I have required extra security before for someone with bad credit.