Renting to someone on a work visa - Landlord Forum thread 335438

Renting to someone on a work visa by Janice (California) on May 25, 2015 @00:50

I have someone interested in renting my house who is here working on a work visa from China. Therefore she has no rental history and just started working here. I am thinking she will need to have a co-signer that is a permanent resident here. Anyone had a situation like this?

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Re: Renting to someone on a work visa by Katiekatr (New York) on May 25, 2015 @11:06	[ Reply ]

I had a house full of students on visa from china. I got 2 months prepaid up front. This was the amount they had to maintain and not use. Plus damage deposit and last month rent. On move in I got first mount, last month, plus 2 months prepaid. Holding fee rolled into the security deposit. That was so that if they failed to pay the rent, I had a 3 month cushion. Since I only rent August to August (school year), it was assurance that if they left early I would not be out the whole school year. I must say, they were the best tenants I ever had. The place was always clean, the rent always paid on time, and any damage that was done was paid for immediately. BUT...they were referred to me from the University housing office. Maybe that makes a difference

Re: Renting to someone on a work visa by Anonymous on May 25, 2015 @12:24	[ Reply ]

I would not do this without a solid cosigner. The risk here is greater than renting to someone in the US. If they damage the place or do not pay rent, once they go back to China, you have no one to collect money from...unless there is a cosigner. Years ago, we had a very nice young lady (student/renter) from Sweden who rented a unit in our building. Her initial payment was two months rent and the security, so we decided to give it a try (no cosigner though). We even helped her set up her utilities and telephone since she didn't know how it worked. In the end, she didn't pay the last months rent, damaged the unit, and somehow my name ended up on her phone bill (which she failed to pay for the last three months). We obviously never collected the debt and it was a big pain in the a** to convince the phone company to get my name off the bill.

by Anonymous on May 25, 2015 @18:10	[ Reply ]

I would require a co-signer on the lease. I have a group of 3 Chinese persons I rented a house to, in a couple months I inspected to find the only furniture they moved in were beds -- 2 in the LR, 2 in each BDR and they had changed the bedroom doorknobs to exterior locking knobs. The place was a pigsty. The worked for a Chinese restaurant (owner, manager and apparently plenty of the hired help!) I'm moving them out now.

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