Can I refuse a tenant?

This morning I got an email from a landlord who is curious about what or how he can refuse a prospective tenant. 

======Start of Email======

"Hi I read your blog and you have good info on there.   Keep it up.  I have become a new landlord, some apartments are already rented with leases and two are not.  I have posted my own ads and I got alot of replies but some of them I am not to comfortable with renting to.  Can I deny a tenant a[n] apartment?"

Well in short, yes.

You can deny a tenant an apartment but you must be careful on your reasons.

Valid reasons to deny:

• Credit history.
• Smoking.
• Drug use.
• Number of people. (Be careful on this one.  You can not discriminate against a family or non-family)  But if you have a one bedroom apartment and 7 people are looking to rent your apartment - yes, you can deny for the NUMBER of people not family status!
• Pets.
• Length of lease desired.  (You are requesting a year lease and the tenant wants more or less).
• Income to rent ratio.
• Convictions - (including Sex predators)

Reasons that could be discriminating:

• Family status (Married, divorcee, single, same sex marriage, etc.)  Let me clarify, a landlord cannot say to a prospective tenant "Oh, I only want single people in here" or "Or I don't want a married couple because that only means they MIGHT have kids".
• Race - (Do I need to explain?    Thought NOT!).
• Political Stance.
• Religion.
• Sexual orientation.
• Disability. 
• Age. (Very gray area).

also read:

Explain your fees, Please.

Landlord, Tenants and Co-signers.

Questions ?

Have a great weekend, I will see you Monday!

Comments

[Louisville Real Estate]

Great article, perfectly describes both sides, and it is a very useful reference.