TIC woes

[woodburyowner]

A complaint with HUD would be enough. No need to go for a civil lawsuit although that can also be done. Landlord would have to show his documented selection protocol. The amateur landlord would mostly come up empty handed with that request. Keep in mind that reasonable cause is enough. Chances are it would end up in conciliation rather than all the way to court at this point. Most discrimination actually ends up not getting reported and there is not a lot of incentive for a law firm to get into this (unless it's in larger rental complexes where they can suit for a boatload).

From what you are saying anyone can just submit a complaint to HUD to every landlord that denies an application and write that it was due to discrimination?  Then HUD will conduct a full investigation and go after the landlord because he didn't have all his selection protocol documented?  This seems like a pretty far stretch for a private landlord.

 

[riznick]

How will a landlord know the results if you don't provide them?  The landlord needs to treat all prospective applicants the same way which includes filling out the application and credit check.

 
Sure, but IMO they shouldn't ask for payment for the credit check if they are going to reject the tenant regardless of the result.  They can do what they want but it's evil, IMO. 

If you don't want to pay the fee for a credit check, don't apply for the rental.  Simple as that.

It's not so simple when you have to move somewhere and can't buy.  After you've paid for 6 credit checks (3x2), it starts to get pretty expensive.

As a landlord, I've accepted copies of credit reports to help the prospective tenant out, but I know this wasn't that smart thing to do in case it was forged.  I even spent hours researching online what the cheapest credit check company is and looked for ways to get discounts on the service.

That's acceptable and accommodating.  In fact I eventually did that when I was a renter to avoid paying all those fees.

 

[nosuchreality]

Would you really blame the landlord for say picking a single tenant who is a consultant and travels 75% of the time vs. a family with young kids?  Both have similar credit / income levels?

I would certainly understand his reasoning, but it's illegal if that's the case.  When I am the victim, I will raise hell.  The tenant at this point is paying out of pocket and hoping that the landlord is going to act in good faith.

What is F'd up is forcing people to pay for multiple credit checks if you aren't going to approve them on good results.  That said, I don't want an inconsiderate asshole landlord so maybe it's for the best.

Wait, Landlord's prefer traveling consultants over families with kids?  I must be doing this wrong, buying 3 bedrooms in good schools and thinking families with young kids stay for years...

 

[irvinebullhousing]

Some landlords prefer not having young kids family for fears that kids would do more wears and tears on the property. I've found that most of the fixes from kids were cosmetic fixes. Family with young kids will want better schools and once they like a place and the kids do well in school, they tend to stay for awhile. Stability is important for landlords as well as good tenants.

I choose good family over single renters.

 

[peppy]

Some landlords prefer not having young kids family for fears that kids would do more wears and tears on the property. I've found that most of the fixes from kids were cosmetic fixes. Family with young kids will want better schools and once they like a place and the kids do well in school, they tend to stay for awhile. Stability is important for landlords as well as good tenants.

I choose good family over single renters.

These are not overlapping categories. What single renter gets a multi bedroom property that is better suited for a family? If anything, your choice is a family vs. multiple adults (most likely college aged). 

 

[AussieBum]

They say she needs to present her actual card in person to them before they can move forward processing our application. Nobody mentioned this to us, though it definitely came up that my wife is from Argentina and she has an accent. Also, we were cleverly advised to only apply with one of our names, since they charge $45 per applicant. We chose her, and that ended up being the wrong choice.

...

I'd be glad to hear any thoughts and advice on this. Similar experiences?

Both my wife and I are immigrants. Brazilian (heavy accent) and Australian (even heavier accent! Haha!). We had both only been in the country 1yr before applying for an IC apartment. The process was pretty smooth. They did ask both of us for our physical SSN cards but I think that is reasonable. Ended up only putting my name on the application but we all agreed it made more sense because I at least had *some* credit history here after 1yr (2 credit cards). We certainly didn't experience any of the issues you came across and my understanding of the process is that the sales agent collects your documentation and it gets sent to a central leasing office and entered into a computer that makes a decision. I don't remember paying for the credit check, I assume it was just part of the original application fee.

Since we've been in the IC company property we've had no problems. We've painted walls, requested the floor in one of the bathrooms be changed from carpet to wood (carpet in the bathroom, ick!), had maintenance fix a few leaky taps and our dog even dug up a large section of carpet that they replaced for the grand total of $70. All perfectly good experiences compared with other landlords I've had over the last 20 years.