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Are those the only two jobs she has had?
Is her income more than 3 times the rent?
Does she have a criminal background?
Does she have any earlier landlords you can talk to?
Have you checked her credit history?
- My lease application included just two last workplaces. Probably I have to make room for more.
- No.
- She says no. She doesn't look like a criminal.
- One; he is on vacations for another 2 weeks (I checked in his office).
- How?
Thank you!
Thanks everybody!!!
It's my first experience of renting a MIL apt in our basement. So mostly, the prospects will be students from a small inexpensive university nearby. They won't potentially have income 3 times higher than rent, but they have to have at least 2.5 more. She will probably have 2 times, if she holds her job.
Definitely the knowledge of how to evict someone would be helpful, but I'd prefer to have it second-hand. )
You have already decided to lower standards on income to 2.5 x the rent and she does not meet that criteria. So don't approve her or you may very well be learning how to evict her first hand.
- In comparison with a first applicant (funny smelling person with a shaky hands and no money at all - "I'll find a job soon..." - and being evicted by police from one of her previous places) she is a jewel
You have already decided to lower standards on income to 2.5 x the rent and she does not meet that criteria. So don't approve her or you may very well be learning how to evict her first hand.
- Thank you! I found 2.5 ratio at some website for landlords, I also saw in some statistics that 40% of income is what an average family spends on rent. Maybe for a single person it should be 3 times.
She does not appear to be responsible. Since her current landlord is on vacation, I would ask her for the previous landlord and get an honest reference from him. You could also drop by her house, unexpectedly to see if she is clean and to see if she has three other people (not on the lease) living with her. When my husband was a landlord, he said the always did this and you can tell how someone is going to treat your property by the way they are living now.
Overall, I don't think she has the financial resources to cover the rent. I would wait for someone more stable.
No. She's not a stable, reliable person. You can deny someone based on their personality. You can deny someone based on their employment history. If you feel the need to tell her why at all, which you don't have to. Neither of these reasons is under the fair housing laws regarding discrimination.
I also rented to students. If they were a full-time student, and proved it, I didn't make them prove their income. I also didn't accept co-signers (headaches, trust me). Students won't make 3 x the rent. Most of my student tenants had no income of their own. I didn't care if mommy paid the rent, but I would only deal with the tenant - not dealing with mommies - learned my lesson there.
I suggest you just do a month-to-month agreement. Easy to get rid of them if there is a problem. You never know if they will end up moving in the boyfriend, etc. With a lease, it can be a long drawn out headache. With a month-to-month, you just kick them out with a 30 day notice. (Unless you are in rent controlled area - I'm not familiar with rent control laws, but I think it's harder to get rid of someone.)
And take your time finding someone. If you're too quick to rent to someone you have a hinky feeling about, because you're worried about money - trust me, you'll lose money on them in the long run, anyway.
No. You can deny someone based on their personality. You can deny someone based on their employment history. Neither of these reasons is under the fair housing laws regarding discrimination.
... not dealing with mommies - learned my lesson there.
I suggest you just do a month-to-month agreement.
And take your time finding someone. If you're too quick to rent to someone you have a hinky feeling about, because you're worried about money - trust me, you'll lose money on them in the long run, anyway.
You need to do a credit check and criminal background check. You cannot trust that they "tell you" they are not a criminal. Criminals tend to lie, and many are good at it.
You need to set some solid criteria for prospective tenants, and stick to it. Some common rules of thumb are:
- Income of at least 3x rent
- No felonies on their record
- Clean/well-kept appearance (clothes should be clean, hair/body should be groomed/clean, car should be clean/not full of trash)
- Minimum credit score (600 is a common minimum)
- Good reference from current/previous landlord
- No evictions on their record
There are plenty of other criteria landlords tend to use, but those are a few of the major ones. You need to get in contact with a company that can run credit/criminal checks for you, very important. Good for you for verifying (or trying to verify) the income and landlord reference; don't rent to anyone until you have verified ALL of the criteria have been met.
- It's her landlord's office, not her, where I was told that he is on vacations.
Where did you get the contact tel# for the landlord? How do you know it's not someone she knows that answers the phone acting like they are his office?
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