Moving in 2 weeks-- zero luck finding an apartment that allows a three year old child and a small dog! (Boston: apartment complex, lease)

[Dm84]

Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012

I thought it was illegal for LLs to discriminate against families with kids? I am flabbergasted that they flat-out say they won't rent to anyone under 6?

Just did a quick search and found this: Lead Paint and Discrimination . It's from the official Massachusetts government web site and is dated 2017. From how it describes the law, LLs are clearly discriminating against the OP's family.

Having said that: it's probably moot since they could say they are refusing to rent because of the dog.

correct it's illegal. They need to stop mentioning the kid until it's time to sign the lease. Then the landlord HAS to delead.

[karen_in_nh_2012]

Originally Posted by Dm84

correct it's illegal. They need to stop mentioning the kid until it's time to sign the lease. Then the landlord HAS to delead.

The OP mentioned the landlords' comments in such a matter-of-fact way that I had to look it up!

But alas, I think the dog might be a bigger problem, and an excuse for LLs who don't want to rent to those with young kids.

[Whatsnext75]

Just seems easier to find a place that is already deleaded or built after 1978. You are likely setting yourself up to have a ****ty relationship with the landlord of you do that. Deleading costs about 10k at least. Apparently MA laws on lead are really over board. As long as the lead paint isnt chipping and is in tact, no lead dust around and of course no chewing on anything that has lead paint it is a non issue. Encapsulate. However the MA laws make it so landlords have to go thru these deleading procedures which remove all traces and that is what is so costly. This is why people try to avoid renting to kids under 6 here. They don't want to pay thousands to delead.

[Dm84]

Originally Posted by Whatsnext75

Just seems easier to find a place that is already deleaded or built after 1978. You are likely setting yourself up to have a ****ty relationship with the landlord of you do that. Deleading costs about 10k at least. Apparently MA laws on lead are really over board. As long as the lead paint isnt chipping and is in tact, no lead dust around and of course no chewing on anything that has lead paint it is a non issue. Encapsulate. However the MA laws make it so landlords have to go thru these deleading procedures which remove all traces and that is what is so costly. This is why people try to avoid renting to kids under 6 here. They don't want to pay thousands to delead.

Which is stupid because it's a one time expense and it's money they'll recoup easily in a few years when they can advertise that it's been deleaded. Also, landlords in this area are making a ****ing killing- I don't feel sorry for them.

[Whatsnext75]

I dont feel bad for them either...but they're doing it and in this market they can be picky. Plenty of people out there with out kids under 6. I've never heard of anyone with young kids having this issue quite honestly.

[Shizim]

It's probably a conjunction of things honestly. And not being able to see the place and hand a check at the showing is the nail in the coffin.

[pumpkin114]

The reason we bring up our child to brokers is because it's one of the first things we were asked when trying to set up viewings. They ask how many prospective tenants and/or who the tenants would be and we didn't think it would benefit us to lie. If we do like a place we give them the application that outlines who the prospective tenants are. We figured if we lied and got to the viewing stage they would simply toss our application aside for another and the lease would be written up with the tenants listed on the application, then we would have to ask permission to add the kid.

Maybe we needed to risk that looking back now, but we wanted to be honest and not waste time.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by Shizim

It's probably a conjunction of things honestly. And not being able to see the place and hand a check at the showing is the nail in the coffin.

True, my last three Somerville places I only got because I wrote a check for the deposit and filled out the application before the next person even showed up to look at it. If I waited, I wouldn't have gotten them.

[pumpkin114]

Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012

I thought it was illegal for LLs to discriminate against families with kids? I am flabbergasted that they flat-out say they won't rent to anyone under 6?

Just did a quick search and found this: Lead Paint and Discrimination . It's from the official Massachusetts government web site and is dated 2017. From how it describes the law, LLs are clearly discriminating against the OP's family.

Having said that: it's probably moot since they could say they are refusing to rent because of the dog.

We were looking pretty much at only dog friendly rentals, however it seems the few that are willing to accept a dog seem to be older places that haven't had much renovations done and have unknown lead status. So these places would have been okay with the dog, just not the kid.

Conversely, the places in our price range that would be fine with a kid didn't want a dog capable of noise/messing up their property (not that ours would).

It most certainly feels like discrimination as far as not wanting to rent to a child, but we really can't prove it since these conversations took place with brokers over the phone. They get 2-3 applications, and simply won't choose us and will say the others were better applicants for whatever reason.

[pumpkin114]

Originally Posted by timberline742

True, my last three Somerville places I only got because I wrote a check for the deposit and filled out the application before the next person even showed up to look at it. If I waited, I wouldn't have gotten them.

That is our case now, but most of this happened while my husband was there in person last week, physically handing over pre-ready applications. We were told not to give a check until they accepted our application though?