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My understanding is when 2 or more people sign a lease, all their credit scores are considered.
I have a relative who has been unemployed for over a year, and is running low on money. Low enough he doesn't know how he'll pay rent in another 2 or 3 months. He also tells me his credit score is awful, although I don't know the exact number.
I have a good credit score, and currently I live alone. I could conceivably afford a 2 bedroom, and at least my family member won't be homeless.
Can I make it clear I will be paying the rent myself? If they look at his credit, I don't think he could rent anything. But if my credit is good, and the rent is reasonable for my income, would someone rent us a 2 bedroom?
Can I make it clear I will be paying the rent myself?
You would HAVE to do this.
The lease (and all responsibility) in your name alone and your ne'er-do-well relative as 'guest'.
Generally....
with unmarried housemates EACH person needs to be able to qualify on their own.
Beyond the income number (no less than 75% of rent/utilities) there is also tenancy history
and job history and Court action history.
For me, it depends on why the bad credit. I wouldn't rent to someone who has landlord judgments or evictions, or collections from local utility companies, even if there is a coapplicant who has good credit. That is just asking for trouble. If the person just has a lot of credit card and medical bills, that is a completely different issue. I would take them, but make it clear that if the person who is the qualifying applicant wanted out for any reason, the lease would be considered broken, and treated as such.
Depends why the score is bad. I would add him as an occupant if you could be approved by yourself. Then it would be a matter of his background check, which I would be looking for property damage judgements and drug convictions for occupants. For tenants I scrutinize more because they are the ones financially responsible and I also look for evictions, judgments, student loan accounts and their status, and collections.
Explain the situation a little bit and tell them you want to be the only tenant and you would like to add your family member as an occupant. Most places will let you know if that's possible before you pay app fees.
My family member lost his job when both his parents became very ill. Both parents deteriorated mentally as well as physically (dementia). Basically he put taking care of his parents ahead of job searching.
The whole situation is complicated, but it's not someone being a ne'er-do-well. I don't think he handled everything perfectly, but it wasn't an easy situation. This is someone I've known my whole life as a decent, responsible person.
You are going to have to ask each landlord. I suggest that you ask before you pay the application fee.
For me, it would be a no. Each applicant must qualify on their own merit and no one lives there without being on the rental agreement.
What is going to make the situation difficult for you is the number of people who are sick of deadbeat relatives mooching so they try to get them into a rental and then basically abandon them there, leaving the landlord stuck with having to clean up the mess. I will have four or five people trying that every time I have a vacancy. It's not a rare situation.
Obviously, that's not your situation, but if you come around and apply, I have no way of knowing that you are one of the rare honest tenants and not a charming confidence trickster. All I have to go by is what I can verify and the first thing I am verifying is that your relative is unemployed, has no savings, and has bad credit. I don't want to get stuck with him.
I've seen very few of the commercially managed places that will allow an adult to live in the unit without going through the application/approval process.
Some independent landlords do though. For instance, the landlord that we have now only wanted one person on the lease even though all three of us were fine with going through the approval process. You're probably going to have to ask each of the landlords what their rules are.
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