Landlord Extorted for $12,000
Landlord Extorted for $12,000
Consistently using a standard application can protect you from costly lawsuits. Let me give you an example why. Let’s say you need to rent an apartment. You have 5 individuals come by and look at the apartment. You choose applicant number four. It sounds like he has a great job and is clean cut. A few weeks later you get a phone call from applicant #2’s attorney. He claims that you discriminated against his client because she is a Mexican and has two children. The lawyer goes on to state that he will settle for $12,000 or he will take it to federal court and sue you for $55,000.
Unfortunately, you have no documentation from the applicants. You have nothing standardized like an application or credit and background report to support your decision. The attorney knows this and knows he can win a settlement.
Your insurance company will settle for $12,000 because they know the expense of going to court and the probability of loosing. They know you have no documentation and are very exposed. If you really want to protect yourself, please do the following.
Using a standard application and running a background and credit check for all prospective tenants can greatly help limit discrimination lawsuits. Lawsuits are very expensive and time consuming. Store the application, either electronically, or a hard copy in a secure filing cabinet. Run a background and credit check
Who wants to get sued? None of us, so please take every precaution. Prevention is the best medicine.
Have a great day,
Troy Boldt
Welcome back!
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Your example below of the pitfalls of not having a rental application is relevant and important. However, your description of the preferred candidate #4 as “clean cut” is, in my opinion, highly discriminatory and it’s not clear to me why you would use that phrase. Is long hair a legal and valid criteria for exclusion from consideration?
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:28 pm
You are correct, using phrase like clean cut or long haired could be considered discriminatory. Although, hair length is not a protected class. It is best not to use those types of phrase when explain a reason to rent or not to rent to a person. That is why I used it as an example in the email. I want landlords to learn not to use such phrases.
Thank you for your response.
Troy
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I’m a huge believer in documentation. We all benefit from it. A standard form does help with the consistency of that, but at the very least, document, document, document!
October 6th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
A rock-solid lease agreement can help you get a summary judgment, even if a tenant’s lawyer takes you to court. Good documentation is the only way to go.
January 7th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Nice ideas. Lets just hope that 2009 shapes up better than 2008 did. But I’m none too hopeful
July 3rd, 2009 at 10:19 am
ohhh great info!