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We have a friend about to settle here in Aiken SC, and he and his wife came recently to start looking for a rental property.
Though large, multi-bedroom houses were available, there were many they could not even visit just because they have... 6 children! (ages 6 to 17). So they ended up leasing a smallish 3 bedroom + bonus room house. I think it's really unfair since bigger was available and they can afford it...
I remember, when we were looking for a home to rent earlier this year, our real estate agent kept telling us we would find easily since we do not have kids... seems to be so true!
Why do you think that is? Any landlords here who refuse families, even with well-behaved children and lots of rooms in the house?
A landlord doesn't know if a prospective tenant's children are well behaved or absolute hellions and I can understand them being cautious about accepting such a large number of them. I've been a landlord in the past but not where multi-room houses are concerned and I would baulk. I've seen the damage even one child can cause. Cheers!
It's illegal to deny housing to someone based on their familial status. I'd find a good lawyer if I were them. Were they flat out told it was because they had children or were they told it was because there is an occupancy limit? Landlords are allowed to limit the number of people they want in their homes, but they can not differentiate between "people" and "children." If they were told it was because of the kids, they can and need to take action against the landlord. It's people like that that give every other landlord a bad name.
It's illegal to deny housing to someone based on their familial status. I'd find a good lawyer if I were them. Were they flat out told it was because they had children or were they told it was because there is an occupancy limit? Landlords are allowed to limit the number of people they want in their homes, but they can not differentiate between "people" and "children." If they were told it was because of the kids, they can and need to take action against the landlord. It's people like that that give every other landlord a bad name.
When I read the OP I was thinking it was illegal also.
I have a feeling there is more to the story, and either the family didn't qualify on the basis of income, or the landlord didn't want to rent to that many people. I wouldn't rent to that many tenants occupying one place, regardless of their ages.
Keep in mind that what they thought they could afford and what the landlord felt they could afford might have been two completely different things. I'd never rent to anyone spending more than 28% of their verified gross income on rent. That is a landlords perogative, and as long as they are applying the same basis to all prospective tenants it's perfectly legal.
It's illegal to deny housing to someone based on their familial status. I'd find a good lawyer if I were them. Were they flat out told it was because they had children or were they told it was because there is an occupancy limit? Landlords are allowed to limit the number of people they want in their homes, but they can not differentiate between "people" and "children." If they were told it was because of the kids, they can and need to take action against the landlord. It's people like that that give every other landlord a bad name.
This is exactly what I was thinking. Maybe it is legit, maybe it isn't. Occupancy limits are pretty common now. It might have been a miscommunication. Landlord said "you have to many kids" meaning "because your family exceeds the occupancy limit" but your friends heard "because kids mess up the house". Or maybe they were illegally discriminated against. I could see especially a landlord that doesn't own many properties or isn't that experienced thinking they could do something like that. Of course, it might not be the children; it might simply be that the landlord hasn't set an occupancy limit, and thinks 8 people, regarless of age, is too many. I don't know if how that kind of situation would work, legally.
In any case, it would probably be good for your friends to find out what exactly is going on. They might also check state law. I don't think it is that common, but some states actually set their own occupancy limits. State or landlord, the standard is usually two people per bedroom. (To be honest, I was suprised they ended up in a three bedroom because of this.)
Our out-of-state rental sems to attrack large families. The last two renters have had five kids, and everyone looking seemed to have at least five. We made it through without too much trouble, but I was thrilled when the current renter came along with only one teenage daughter.
Five children can do five times the damage as one..... Usually..!
So now that this post has popped up how many children do landlords feel are to many? Provided of course they don't exceed the occupancy limits for the state? Would you be more prone to rent to larger families if they had excellent references?
Keep in mind that what they thought they could afford and what the landlord felt they could afford might have been two completely different things. I'd never rent to anyone spending more than 28% of their verified gross income on rent.
They are engineers, and the company hiring them gives them an extra 2.000 dollars for the rent. So I don't think money was an issue there.
And if I can understand a landlord might be afraid of having too many people in his house, especially children, then my question is: why should a house have many bedrooms if some have to remain empty?
Back home we own a 4-bedroom house, which we currently rent to tenants who have 3 children, we haven't a clue if they are nice children or not, and it would not even have occured to us to say no... because the aim of rental property is to rent it, not to leave it on the market! And you can't really expect a family of 2 or 3 people to want to rent a house with 5,6,7 bedrooms, can you? My thought.
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