questions & answers

Question: Do I have to run credit on everyone that turns in an application to rent my property? What are fair reasons to deny the application without running a background? I have an applicant threatenubg to file a complaint on a violation of the fair housing act, citing race as her reason. honestly, i’m not sure what race she even is but I denied her because she stated on her application that she filed for bankruptcy in 2010. What is fair in this instance? Are there printed guidelines for landlords to follow when accepting a renter?

Answer: The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination against any person who is seeking to rent or purchase a home on the basis of that person’s race, color, national origin, religion, sex, family status, or mental or physical disability. Both intentional housing discrimination and housing practices that have an unjustified discriminatory effect are prohibited by the Fair Housing Act (see: https://www.justice.gov/crt/fair-housing-act). A landlord is not required to rent a property to someone if the landlord’s reasons are purely financial. What a landlord may not do is use financial reasons as a justification to deny a prospective tenant on the basis of that prospective tenant’s race, color, national origin, religion, sex, family status, or mental or physical disability.