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Old 08-20-2007, 04:07 PM
 
15 posts, read 79,211 times
Reputation: 18

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Hi All! My fiance and I are considering moving from New England to Charlotte to be closer to family. I have read online about unmarried couples living together who have faced discrimination while looking for work or housing. I mean, we plan to marry soon, but I guess we are presently "living in sin". Could someone tell me honestly what kind of reaction we will receive in Charlotte... from employers or property managers, etc...? I was reading an online rental application from a Charlotte company that stated: " 'XYZ' Realty, Inc. will not aid any applicant in violating the laws of North Carolina prohibiting co-habitation. (N.C. General Statues 14-184)." I realize that NC is in the middle of the Bible Belt and I expect that people are going to be more conservative than New Englanders, but what can we truly expect from people regarding our current living arrangement? Thanks for your input!
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Old 08-20-2007, 04:16 PM
 
Location: Charlotte, home of the NY/NJ refugees
1,384 posts, read 1,895,601 times
Reputation: 275
Are you kidding me? As someone who "lived in sin" for well over 5 years AND did property management, I can tell you that what you are hearing is ridiculous.

My goodness, what do people think, this is some back-woods place like in Deliverance? Sheesh.

And that application was stupid. For all they know you are roomates. I have never, ever seen anything like that.
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Old 08-20-2007, 04:24 PM
 
Location: Cornelius
3,662 posts, read 9,632,379 times
Reputation: 800
ditto, that's ridiculous. you will not have a problem whatsoever. i've had a couple of girl roommates and never had issues.
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Old 08-20-2007, 04:31 PM
 
64 posts, read 363,934 times
Reputation: 31
From what I've experienced, it's not so much an OMG you're a sinner style discrimination, but it DOES seem set up for married families or single people.

I'll explain. I have a daughter and my fiance will be living with us - as he has for the last year. We have plenty (PLENTY) of money saved up for our relocation so that we could just move down and find jobs once here, rather than trying to do it long distance. However, since we are both still interviewing here, it was just easier to apply for one of us. Most prop. mgmt. companies want EACH of you to be earning 3 or 4 times the rental rate which just doesn't make sense to me.

Another problem we had is that no one would rent the 3 of us a 1 bedroom, even though my daughter is still young. Not even a 1 BR with a den! Go figure. Other companies wanted us to pay 6 - 12 months rent up front, others wanted security deposits equal to 2 months rent... one wanted my father to cosign (I'm thirty yrs old!).

So I can't say exactly why it's like this here. I've certainly never had so much trouble renting before anywhere else in the country. But there you have it. From what I was told by one of the realtors, there is some sort of regulation that any member of the NC Realtors Association (or whatever the official name for that group is) that doesn't allow certain numbers of people in certain houses...yadda yadda, but I don't believe marriage actually matters. One of my questions though was if I was married and pregnant could my husband and I rent a 1BR - they actually asked me when my due date was and wanted to use that to decide if we could rent a 1BR - wtf.
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Old 08-20-2007, 04:31 PM
 
Location: Wellsburg, WV
3,252 posts, read 9,157,899 times
Reputation: 3559
While the practical matter is that cohabitation is ignored...

It IS true that "living in sin" is against the law as stupid as it sounds.

N.C. Cohabitation Law Struck Down
N.C. anti-cohabitation law comes under legal attack
ACLU Challenges N.C. Cohabitation Law

Actually, I think the Pender County Sheriff just wanted to get his deputy off his payroll and found a way to do it. Liz
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Old 08-20-2007, 04:35 PM
 
15 posts, read 79,211 times
Reputation: 18
Thanks for the feedback kmway and carolina_guy - We're really looking forward to the prospect of moving to Charlotte (quality of life, cost of living, etc...), but I was really thrown for a loop when I read that statement regarding cohabitation in that rental application. Then I read an article about that 911 dispatcher in NC (a couple of years ago) who was asked to resign because she had a live-in boyfriend. Just got me a little concerned, that's all. I certainly don't think Charlotte is anything like Deliverance!
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Old 08-20-2007, 05:40 PM
 
2,152 posts, read 6,775,868 times
Reputation: 1389
My wife and I "Lived in sin" for about 6 months in our newly built home before getting married. No big deal.

I have a picture in my head of the old "Shotgun Marriages" that you hear about

HAHAHAHA
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Old 08-20-2007, 05:42 PM
 
19 posts, read 77,563 times
Reputation: 35
Default no discrim

Yeah my boyfriend at the time (now the husband) moved down to charlotte from NY. We looked and looked at apartment complexes, talked to the leasers, etc and we didnt even think of the word discrimination once. I hope you dont feel like you will be. At the time there was also a law that unwed couples couldnt live together. It is not a law anymore though!
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Old 08-20-2007, 05:50 PM
 
Location: Wellsburg, WV
3,252 posts, read 9,157,899 times
Reputation: 3559
Quote:
At the time there was also a law that unwed couples couldnt live together. It is not a law anymore though!
Actually it is still a law, it hasn't been removed from the NC statue yet. Once they do that, then it will no longer be a law.

N.C. Cohabitation Law Struck Down, But Legal Fight Over The Issue Might Not Be Over - CBS News

Quote:
A North Carolina Superior Court judge has issued a formal ruling declaring that the state's law barring unmarried couples from living together is unconstitutional and blocked state officials from enforcing it.
Just because the Superior Court judge has ruled it unconstitutional doesn't mean the Appellate Court will go along with him. Liz
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Old 08-20-2007, 06:01 PM
 
1,166 posts, read 3,897,508 times
Reputation: 383
Default Unmarried couples living together

As others have said that's ridiculous! No one cares whether you are married or not. I'm sorry you've had trouble renting an apartment - I hardly think that's the norm. A bad introduction to a very pleasant city.

Last edited by BarbJ; 08-20-2007 at 06:37 PM..
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