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OP, you keep saying there are many ways to screen a tenant. You're right, and most of us use all of them.
I sometimes get dozens of applications on a house. I'm looking for all of the following:
At least 2.5 times the rent in verifiable net income or else enough in the bank to pay rent for at least 2 years
No collections from landlords
No collections from utility companies
No evictions
Non smokers
Generally pays their bills (I don't look for a certain score, and I ignore medical debt)
Few or no pets
Stable verifiable job
Good landlord references from current and 1 prior (prior is more important than current, because current often lies to get a bad tenant out)
Not too many vehicles for the property
Not too many people for the property
Background relatively clean
The only things on that list that are automatic denials for me are:
Eviction
Judgment from local utility company or landlord
Recent bad felony
Anything else is a negative, but we can talk about it if it is the only negative and everything else is perfect.
But here's the bottom line: If I have 5+ applications turned in on a property, which isn't uncommon, then I can choose, and I'm going to take the one who has the fewest negatives. Today, for example, we had 2 applications turned in from people with 750+ credit scores, 10 years at an excellent job, nonsmokers, no pets, clean background, and excellent references. No one else is going to be able to beat either of these applications. Anyone else who turned in an app wasted their time (not money because we don't charge an app fee).
It doesn't matter in that situation that someone has a story for why they had a landlord lawsuit. They have one more complication than someone else who turned in the app. So if you want to be considered with this on your application, you'd better be perfect in EVERY other category. If you ALSO have pets, or if you've only had your job for 6 months, or if someone in the household is a smoker, or if your credit score is sub 750, someone else is probably going to beat you every time unless you are in a slow rental market, which aren't that common these days.
I have to disagree with the notion that 'any court appearance means automatic disqualification.'
If you're responding to my post, that is not what I said. I said it's a red flag. It is for good reason. And it usually isn't over a security deposit not being returned in a timely manner. Those are pretty few and far between.
OP, you keep saying there are many ways to screen a tenant. You're right, and most of us use all of them.
I sometimes get dozens of applications on a house. I'm looking for all of the following:
At least 2.5 times the rent in verifiable net income or else enough in the bank to pay rent for at least 2 years
No collections from landlords
No collections from utility companies
No evictions
Non smokers
Generally pays their bills (I don't look for a certain score, and I ignore medical debt)
Few or no pets
Stable verifiable job
Good landlord references from current and 1 prior (prior is more important than current, because current often lies to get a bad tenant out)
Not too many vehicles for the property
Not too many people for the property
Background relatively clean
The only things on that list that are automatic denials for me are:
Eviction
Judgment from local utility company or landlord
Recent bad felony
Anything else is a negative, but we can talk about it if it is the only negative and everything else is perfect.
But here's the bottom line: If I have 5+ applications turned in on a property, which isn't uncommon, then I can choose, and I'm going to take the one who has the fewest negatives. Today, for example, we had 2 applications turned in from people with 750+ credit scores, 10 years at an excellent job, nonsmokers, no pets, clean background, and excellent references. No one else is going to be able to beat either of these applications. Anyone else who turned in an app wasted their time (not money because we don't charge an app fee).
It doesn't matter in that situation that someone has a story for why they had a landlord lawsuit. They have one more complication than someone else who turned in the app. So if you want to be considered with this on your application, you'd better be perfect in EVERY other category. If you ALSO have pets, or if you've only had your job for 6 months, or if someone in the household is a smoker, or if your credit score is sub 750, someone else is probably going to beat you every time unless you are in a slow rental market, which aren't that common these days.
Sorry... but you have actually reaffirmed the reasons why landlords would not want to deal with a person like you.
What exactly were these "illegal pressure tactics and harassment" that caused you to report them to the building inspector? Sounds like you were retaliating against them because you were not happy with whatever they were asking you to do.
Didn't know you were an internet detective too. You're in the wrong line of work. If you want more info, just ask instead of accusing me of lying. don't see the point as you don't know me.
Illegal pressure tactics as in lying that a tenant below me complained that I gave them bed bugs when the tenant (who is also my friend) never complained and the building inspector cited minor infestation (not caused by me) in my unit. I was prepared to bring the tenant as a witness along with the lie since it was in writing. I'm sure this is the wrong place to convince people that some landlords/PMCs are just bad, as majority of these comments sound like they're projecting their experience with bad tenants on me. I haven;t said one incorrect or combative thing, yet everyone here is on level 10 defensive mode. If you're not an anal landlord who screens people unfairly, then this post isn't for you.
I wouldn't rent to you based on the fact that you ended up in court with a former landlord. I don't care why you're there, I don't care who filed the lawsuit; I just care that you went to court in the first place.
Even if this doesn't show up on your credit report, it won't be hard to find. I can do a court case search for criminal and civil cases online from the comfort of my home. If I want copies, I go downtown.
Thank you to everyone who gave me respectful responses, whether in support or respectful disagreement. I appreciate and welcome all opinions as they help me to understand where people are coming from.
To those who came to accuse, play internet detective and call me a liar, use me to fulfill some incessant psychological need to project their bad experiences on me and make themselves feel better, anything that wasn't productive, etc. I don't have much to say...you have issues and you're the reason why the law should be changed.
I just wanted to say that I applied for a lease yesterday and explained my situation and am happy to say my application was accepted. The property manager was very understanding and only cared that the eviction wasn't on my credit report. It also helped that everything else was perfect. So to those in my situation who may be reading this, I hope this information gives you some comfort! Also write to your local legislators to ask that more laws be passed to protect tenants in our situation.
This forum is essentially controlled by landlords, property managers and realtors. They are very quick to complain about tenants and offer advice for ways to screw them over. There is no industry quite like real estate when it comes to the display of open contempt for their customers and the defense of their fellow scumbags.
I can see that lol. Bless the few good ones though. Ironically, my dad's a landlord. But I swear he would never do half of the things some of the people here are saying they would do.
Today, I just had an eviction case dismissed with prejudice and the landlord even paid me $1000. (For those who swear I'm at fault, this means the case went in my favor). The landlord's lawyer and my lawyer even motioned to have the case sealed to protect me (this was denied as the law disfavors sealings of public records). I was in a retaliatory eviction situation where the PMC bought the property from the old landlord I signed the lease with and underwent major remodeling efforts on the building while we were living there. Of the 12 people that were orignally in our building, only 2 people remain now because of illegal pressure tactics and harassment to force us to move out so they could remodel our units. I reported them to the building inspector for their misconduct regarding bed bug treatments, and they were cited 19 code violations. 2 days later, they gave me a notice to quit on the grounds that "I wasn't complying to treatment" (I had pictures proving my apartment was prepped) and they lied and said the guy below me complained of bed bugs that I helped spread due to my "noncompliance" (the guy below me was my witness that he never complained about this and never had bed bugs). Basically I had a very solid case and was prepared to counter-sue for retaliation. The PMC realized this, agreed to dismiss the case and pay me $1,015 and I moved out voluntarily to end the toxic relationship.
During this ordeal, I've been searching all over the internet for advice and came across this forum. However, all I've seen on here is a bunch of anal, self righteous, pretentious people on here who keep saying "As a landlord, I wouldn't even consider your application even if it was just an eviction filing" or "that means i had to drag you to court to get you to leave" You people do realize that anybody can file a lawsuit right? You people do realize that a lot of those "filings" were made in error or the tenant may not have been at fault. You people DO realize, that some of these tenants actually WIN their suits, meaning that there was NO grounds for an eviction right? It is absolutely disgusting that there are people out there who will take the time to sniff out a DISMISSED eviction suit and not their actual credit report WHICH TELLS YOU IF THE PERSON WAS ACTUALLY EVICTED. It angers me to the core that there are people out there who will punish *me*, whose never even gotten so much as a traffic ticket, for something that I had no fault in. For those of you who screen tenants in this manner, you don't deserve to be landlords and I hope more laws are passed to protect tenants like me and seal dismissed evictions because clearly this is being abused.
Congratulations on your win.
For the record, there is a lot of bluster and nonsense spewed by managers and landlords here, but little to none of it actually manifests in the real world. I have been involved in two lawsuits with property managers/landlords (one civil suit brought by me, and then an eviction filed against me) and won both. I'm now on my 3rd and 4th rentals since those respective issues and I've never once been denied because of them. A couple potential landlords understandably had some questions and initials concerns but some polite and professional explanation was all that was needed.
Furthermore, I encourage you to contact your government representatives from your city council/county commission all the way up to your legislators and governor. At least one state (Oregon) recently passed a law making it illegal to deny tenancy to anyone for being involved in an eviction proceeding unless a court had actually ruled against that person. If more people like you speak up to the people who matter, hopefully more states will follow Oregon's lead.
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