When screening possible tenants for your rental property you want set requirements that any new tenant would need to meet. If you make an exception, you will need to make sure you have a good reason and that when making that exception make 100% sure you did not discriminate against another possible tenant. Treat every possible tenant the exact same way. By creating guidelines and following them every time, you will protect yourself an your possible tenant from discrimination.
Here are the 5 items we focus on. You will want to create guidelines for each of these.
-Credit Score
-Gross Income
-Employment Verification
-Rental History
-Criminal Back Ground* Make sure you know the new changes to the fair Housing Laws
Make sure you treat all tenant the same and follow the Fair Housing Guidelines. Here are a list of the protected classes. Each state might have additional, so make sure you check your local laws.
-Race
-Color
-Sex
-Religion
-National Origin
-Disability
-Familial Status
Thanks for watching and reading. Please let us know if there is anything else you might check, or things we should add.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.