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Re: Poor credit ? - Landlord Forum thread 346802

Re: Poor credit ? by Anonymous on July 27, 2016 @08:57

                              
No, but the point is to not take the risk of discrimination suit. If you deny one tenant for having a poor credit score, but accept another for having a poor credit score, you will be asked why.
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Re: Poor credit ? by J (FL) on July 27, 2016 @09:08 [ Reply ]
I understand, just wondering. It's something I've thought about before this post. First of all the rejected applicant would somehow have to know that you accepted someone else with the same or lower score as them. So they would either have to know about the credit score of the other applicant, or just make up a complaint to HUD that they were discriminated based on credit, and I don't know know how many people would bother doing something this unless they had a screw loose, or you (LL) treated them very rudely at a showing.

Secondly, HUD would have to actually view other applicant's credit reports, possibly without their permission, to prove this case. Perhaps HUD has the power to do this. But it may be against the FCRA rules.

    Re: Poor credit ? by Anonymous on July 27, 2016 @09:42 [ Reply ]
    J, I don't have any other way to explain it. When you don't apply your rental criteria uniformly, you risk discrimination complaints *whether you intended to discriminate or not*. MrDan and others have made several posts about this lately. It's all in the name of landlord protection. The rejected tenant doesn't have to prove anything to make a housing complaint, nor have any knowledge about who the landlord did accept - only that they were rejected.

    The housing authority will then initiate an investigation and do their *own* research.
      Re: Poor credit ? by J (FL) on July 27, 2016 @10:15 [ Reply ]
      My point is credit reports are somewhat subjective. It isn't a black and white issue like "must have 3X income". It is a very complicated piece of information and hard to have rigid rules about making a decision.

      If someone is making their decision based only on a score cutoff because they are terrified of HUD, that's their right, but I think that's a dangerous way to pick a tenant. I've seen reports where someone has an okay score but items on there, or too much debt, where they would be too risky to take.

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