Ok, I tried looking this up on the web to no avail, which I thought was somewhat suprising.
I recently was turned down for renting a new place for reasons which are entirely not important but which seem to make absolutely no sense to me from an economic view. What I was wondering was if there are laws about what a company can turn down a rental application for, and what it cannot. I figure there must be laws on this.
I honestly feel that I should have gotten the place but I failed to meet one of their four criteria (though it is a two bedroom and there is another person involved, however, the other person met all criteria and had I not been on the application the apartment would be rented as we speak). I assume they are in compliance with state laws (I’m in MA btw) but I’d really like to check to be sure. And yet, I don’t know where to look or if there is even anywhere at all to look.
The application form lists no regulations that it is, or may be required to be, in compliance with and yet I’m sure there certainly must be some guidelines.
Thanks.
[I hope this doesn’t post twice… my screen said “This page cannot be displayed” and I waited about 10 minutes, checked the pages, and didn’t see it posted so…]
If you got turned down for race, religion, national origin, blah blah blah then you might have a case of discrimination. If not, the landlord can generally refuse you for any other reason. After all, it IS their property. Common legal reasons would include excluding pet owners, smokers, people with a wild lifestyle (big partiers), or people that seem just plain nasty to rent to. There is nothing illegal, immoral, or wrong about that IMO.
Well, if barring the standard discrimination stuff the owner can and does have the right to refuse for any other reason of course I can’t complain. I agree that this is how it should be; my opinions on how things should be usually vary greatly with how things are so I was just wondering.
The situation: my bad credit. My cause for concern: there is no remedy for this situation. Even if we presented the full year’s rent up front we still could not get the apartment.
Given just the other person’s income the yearly rent would be less than 10% which I consider to be impressive. This other person has no outstanding debts, either, so it is 10% even after one adjusts for bills.
As well, the other person offered to take complete financial responsibility. They refused that and insisted that since we were both living there we both had to be considered and that if either of us would independantly fail the standards then the whole deal is a no-go.
I find this to be a little strange. 100% up-front rent and still a no-go? The wealthy individual assuming full financial responsibility? Had I been his wife there would be no problem, which I find to be strange indeed.
I’m not a residential leasing agent but I do a fair amount of commercial leasing. Per Shagnasty if the landlord is not refusing you for race, creed, color or whatever other protected categories are defined under MA state law you are most likely SOL re persuing any action. You need to get a copy of the MA code pertaining to these matters in order to educate yourself on your rights in this situation.
I don’t know what you were looking for per your somewhat cryptic OP but there’s lots of stuff re MA landlord-tenant law on the web (see below).
Commission Against Discrimination
One Ashburton Place
Boston, MA 02108
617-727-7310 http://rhol.org/rental/Massachusetts.htm
A Massachusetts Real Estate Guide: Real estate guides distributed throughout 85 Southeastern Massachusetts communities.
The Tenants Commandments
Massachusetts Tenant Information
Massachusetts Tenant Information http://tenant.net/Other_Areas/Massachusetts/
and associated links for
Letter of the Law: Housing Perspectives from a Massachusetts Tenant Attorney
How to be a Tenant in Massachusetts Without Getting Ripped Off
Tenant’s Commandments – Mass. Office of Consumer Affairs
Massachusetts State Sanitary Code
Discussion of Massachusetts tenants’ right - source unknown
Re-Renting Your Apartment
Shelterforce article on Defeat of Rent Control in Massachusetts
Chapter 282 of 1994 - providing transition from Rent Control
Analysis of real estate contributions for ballot initiative to end Rent Control
“Community Empowerment Act” would give Mass. communities power to restore Rent Control
Landlords Vex Newton Officials – Boston Globe article
A Free Look at your Credit Report
The landlord absolutely is allowed to decline to rent to you if you have bad credit. The primary purpose of doing a credit check is to determine ability to pay, so refusing an offer to pay the whole lease up-front is a little weird, but bad credit is probably at least somewhat correlated with being an up-all-night party boy, too. (BTW, if you want to live in Norwood, walking distance to commuter rail, we’ll have a 2-bedroom for rent starting in September. Personally, I’d take up-front payment in a heartbeat rather than waiting for a tenant with better credit, but maybe this landlord has had some kind of bad experiences).
About the only situation in MA I know of where a landlord can be “forced” to rent to a particular person is in certain situations involving Section 8 subsidized housing. You can’t discriminate based on race, religion, sex, or familial status in non-owner-occupied housing, and you can’t advertise discriminatory practices as to race, religion or familial status even in owner-occupied housing.
[sub]IANAL (yet), and this is an off-the-cuff response not intended to be legal advice, yada, yada, yada.[/sub]
Not really. What happens when the year is out and the tenant can’t afford to pay the next year’s rent? Do you know how difficult it is to evict someone?
Yes, admittedly, when you take the OP’s entire situation into consideration (i.e. other roommate willing to accept full financial responsibility), it does seem a bit odd, but as a landlord, I wouldn’t accept a year’s pay up front in lieu of good credit.
Think of it this way. You are in a sense applying for credit with the landlord. He has every reason to check your past history as it is a pretty good gauge for future habits.
Think of buying a car on a 4-5 year term. Even if you had the first entire year of payments sitting in your savings, ready to go, with a shitty credit history no bank would ever give you the other 3-4 years just because of 1 years worth of “good” credit. It takes a long time to build credit back up but only days to totally destroy it.
I try to explain credit problems to tenants all the time. More and more property managers are using credit checks to screen tenants…the reason, they are excellent indicators of what one might expect of a potential tenant.
There is something you can do about it however and that is to clean up your credit history. If you have outstanding debt, pay it off. While the black mark remains for some time, it is also noted that settlement has been made, which at least indicates that you are not a dead beat.
Probably everyone has had credit problems in the past, lord knows I have. It’s nothing to be particularily ashamed of, we just need to realize how much our future is determined by our past.
The only way the property manager could have gotten in trouble is by violating the Fair Credit regulations which require them to notify you of the reason why you were turned down, in whole or in part because of their findings from the credit report. It sounds like they did let you know. You should also take advantage of the free credit report they offered in their letter of denial.
Hmmm . . . if it wasn’t for the offering to pay up front, I can think of one obvious reason: Your friend agrees to assume responsibility, then suddenly gets a job in East Timor, leaving you as the only resident, and the owner is SOL if you can’t pay.
With the up-front offer, I don’t know . . . maybe they’re afraid you’re going to trash the place after a month then skip on your lease? That does seem a little odd.
I can sympathize, though. My credit is only now beginning to clean up after about a decade of bad habits.
I think this is related to a specific legal concept that applies to rental contracts. Tenants assume “joint and several liability.” This means that if any one of the tenants doesn’t pay, the landlord can go after each one separately, all of them together, or any combination.
I’m certain it seems unfair to you erislover, but as I indicated earlier, we use credit reports as indicators of more than financial responsibility. Some, not all folks with a poor credit history tend to have other problems.
Try to look at it this way, if I have numerous applicants for a rental and one couple has impeccable credit and the other has a shady history, who would YOU choose as the best risk?