He complains of racial discrimination because he did not receive appropriate attention. Suppose that a landlord ignored black applicants, while ultimately renting to a white applicant. Do you think that would constitute a systematic course of action representing discrimination? I think that maybe yes.

Thats the trouble with the suggestion to ignore his application if you don't want to rent to him. I would instead give every applicant the attention that he is due: Polite treatment, a showing, an application and a written response.

Your way, you look bad, you have lost the initiative to respond to the application on your own terms. Any response now would be looked at as if it were made-to-order to create a defensible rejection. I would have sent him a denial letter carefully though out.

You might want to send him now a denial letter which spells out your criteria and how he failed to meet your requirements, but be sure to have a well-thought-out written criteria in your records and be sure to apply it consistently from now on.

JKJ,

He might be blowing smoke but you cannot rely on that. Alwaus ACT AS IF you are going to be sued. He has 2 years to file a complaint.

Me? The less you say the better. EVERY word you utter or put in print WILL be used against you.

“Everyone is welcome to apply”

Then a simple email or text “The office did not approve your application.”

If he persists “For more information send a self addressed stamped envelope. “

If you denied based on a credit report by law you must msend the offical credit report letter. If not YOU could be in big trouble.

Another reason we don’t answer the phone or meet them prior to pre-approval - we cannot see them while screening. I don’t know their color, ethnicity, creed, etc.

Like a duck stay cool and calm on tje surface but paddle like crazy under the surface by documenting EVERY contact and communication with this person.

Do NOT talk to him. LLs get sued for what they SAY.

What I have always done is create a list of requirement for each property I own. Then before I'm going to market a unit, I take a copy of my requirements and have it notarized. This way I can prove to the "powers that be" that I had a valid reason to turn down an applicant for something other than their credit.

IMO you have treated this potential applicant different than others by eliminating him with the prescreening & not allowing him the opportunity to have a complete application. In the future you would be better off letting everyone who asks for one an application to given them one.

How do you know if this person actually has an undisclosed criminal record & not good credit? If it was because of the answers to his "pre-screening questions", how could you properly screen him without a SS# & a signed release form? The info you checked could be for another "John Smith".

If you haven't already done so, I strongly recommend that you develop a set of written criteria for this unit. Once you have it you will be able to start properly processing applications from prospective renters. I find that once I start to verify the info they have submitted, it usually confirms my gut reaction to our first contact. How well they meet your criteria should enable you to establish a ranking system for selecting the best qualified applicant for your property.

I start my screening process from the very first contact whether it's a phone call, text, walk by, Email, etc. Even if as a result of this initial contact my gut tells me NO WAY would I rent to them, I at least allow them the opportunity to fill out an application. In most cases there is usually unverifiable, untrue info or incomplete info on their application which will give me a valid reason to not accept them at this time.

A quick Google search yielded this;

Within limits, the owner has the ability to discriminate against a potential tenant. Under Massachusetts law, when the apartment complex is a two-family unit and the owner lives in one of the units, major discrimination laws do not apply. An owner could deny the rental opportunity to a tenant because of gender, age, disability, or number of children. This is only permissible for an owner-occupied two-family dwelling. The full extent of discrimination laws are applied if the dwelling includes more than two units. Under no circumstances can the owner of a two-family unit discriminate based on race or color.

You might want to do a bit more research on this.

Owner occupied rentals have MUCH more freedom and CAN discriminate (legally) in certain instances. Find the law and learn about it. I don't think it would cover you in THIS scenario, but since this will be your long-term strategy for land lording you should know FHA forwards and backwards.

I'm glad your learned from us about not replying to denied applicants. Have you learned part 2 of that strategy, which is BLOCK CALLS & TEXTS? My guess is "No" since you're still hearing the chatter from him threatening you. Once you are done communicating with someone, there is no reason to allow them to fill up your Inbox/Voicemail.

Ha! I follow sid's rule in his last sentence. I promptly hangup on anyone who doesn't pass my phone sentence. As long as I am rude to everyone, it is not discrimination.

Nice of you to blame this forum. One of the most frequently posted pieces of advice I see on this forum is ‘ Know YOUR state’s laws (and municipal laws, if they have additional laws,) develop your written criteria based upon those laws, and apply it evenly.

Another piece of advice I see offered on this forum: join the local landlord or apartment association. My local association offers an excellent ‘bootcamp’ with a full day of training. Also, my city offers free landlord training classes.

We’re not the ones on the phone with your applicants. How you ask questions, what comments you make, we don’t know. You and I have had discussion before about the fact that you don’t accept Section 8 / other forms of voucher payments. In my area,I need to accept Section 8 according to recent law changes, so, that doesn’t mean I should come up with some goofy work around to avoid it, it means accept it.

Denial of an applicant based upon credit requires a written letter of denial. This is Federal law, there is no just not answering the phone, based upon advice you got on a public forum. However, I don’t know how one could have the credit report without getting SSN and a signature? So, maybe it wasn’t credit, I don’t know....Denial based upon criminal record may or may not be legal in your area, and the state laws are usually created based on disparate impact that using criminal record has upon minorities. So, yes, you may have discriminated based upon race, depending upon how you applied your screening criteria, even if some denied were not minorities.

the cost of doing business in Taxachusetts is to have a Lawyer on Retainer and use him for every decision you do not inherently know the answer.

This advice is unique to Taxachusetts

Do NOT skip in this area as the Socialist Republic of Taxachusetts is indeed evil and they are out to get you

I think you have gotten some great advice on here.

You probably should let anyone fill out an application who wants to and then you have all of the proper information(if they didn't lie)to do a proper back ground and credit check. MYOB does a great job at making money on applications. As StillLearning said if you deny based on credit you have to send a letter(I forget what it is called).

Brad also has good advice about watching what you say and like he said “For more information send a self addressed stamped envelope. “

As others have said keep a copy of all correspondence to all.

"Thats the trouble with the suggestion to ignore his application if you don't want to rent to him. I would instead give every applicant the attention that he is due: Polite treatment, a showing, an application and a written response."

It's not realistic to give a showing to every person who contacts you.

David, that is funny. I am not sure if that would hold up in court though.

nhsailmaker, I take it you used to live in MA?

AllyM, I think certain discrimination laws still apply.

Ally M, not sure if he lives there covers everything anymore. I have never had owner occupied rentals, but, laws from even a few years ago might not apply anymore. Or, perhaps the wording would be lack of laws from a few years ago might not apply anymore. Jkj needs to KNOW, not guess at the laws for his/her state, city, municipality, and apply those as they pertain to his situation, including the fact that it is owner-occupied. Then there can be confidentce that his/her process is legal. Even then, it needs to be documented well.

I think I read on here a while back someone posted that when the LL has the potential tenant, who is requiring/demanding/requesting denial information, to send a self-addressed stamped envelope the LL also has the potential tenant enclose a copy of their state identification, such as a driver’s license. You know, for verification and quality control.

Tenant. I demand that you send me information as to why you rejected me.

LL. Sure, fine, I will be glad to send you SOMETHING. Just provide me with a SASE with your written request along with a copy of your current driver’s license. You know for verification and control. (LL to self. When received check spelling of name, DOB, address on license against application).

Or just ignore.

J, I am not positive but I think when one ask or demands for a reason why you have to tell them. If I understand correctly this is the safest way and legal way to do so. It also allows you time to make sure all of you ducks are in a row while following the law by providing them with an answer as to why they were denied. It seems to me that in most cases that the applicant never follows through, thus keeping you legal in offering an answer but ending the problem.

" It's not realistic to give a showing to every person who contacts you "

No, but the present situation regarding discrimination complaints is itself sir-realistic. It (the situation) is there, right-or-wrong, it is serious, and it is necessary to deal with it.

You need to treat each applicant the same, up to the point that you decide that he has failed your criteria. At that point, it is necessary (while still treating him politely and fairly) to be professional, advise him of his status and to document what has happened.

I see advice suggesting that you do not need to reply to a rejected applicant. I don't advise that. I believe that such thoughts reflect the landlord's desire to put himself above the applicant, boost landlod's own ego, and an insecurity about his (landlord's) own ability to discuss and defend his decisions. But thats not the best objective. The best objective here is to develop a method to stay out of trouble in a situation where landlord has less control than he might and unfair presumptions that can work to his serious disadvantage. The best way to do that is to develop GOOD criteria for accepting/rejecting tenants, follow the criteria closely, treat all applicants honestly and fairly, and follow up in a thoroughly professional manner.

Worrying about how your written point of view may hurt you means that landlord is insecure that he cannot defend his point of view. The solution to that is not "don't worry" but to understand what you are doing and why, and to make good, professional decisions with the confidence that a good, professional decision is its own good defense.

Landlord is not required by law to give a tenant an answer just because tenant asked, but not to do so is a violation of the laws of professionalism, and it will be seen in just that light. Any application deserves an honest and straightforward answer. If you don't have a good answer, maybe it is the decision that wansn't good.

Moshe, thank you for your point and explanation on that.

If you are sure that the applicant won't qualify for your requirements, then why expend more resources on him? Does he have any rights that you have overlooked?

But once you have decided to reject him, you should follow through and wind up his application with professional treatment without giving him further encouragement.

In my pre-screening process I collect email addresses. If an applicant does not meet the criteria I write them referring back to the data they provided and cite their data as the reason for denial. If someone seems questionable but meets the criteria I offer to show and look for faults and depend on the full screening process.

What is important to your process, sm pot, is not the mechanics but the fact that an applicant gets equal consideration for the rental, he gets due consideration for his qualifications, and he gets, not ignored, but a decision about his application and a documented reason for the decision. Thats all that is expected from a landlord. If LL rejected an applicant for a good reason, he has nothing to fear. If it was for a not-such-a-good reason, well, maybe its the decision that was wrong and not the documentation.

"I see advice suggesting that you do not need to reply to a rejected applicant. I don't advise that. I believe that such thoughts reflect the landlord's desire to put himself above the applicant, boost landlod's own ego, and an insecurity about his (landlord's) own ability to discuss and defend his decisions. But thats not the best objective."

I'm not interested in boosting my own ego. I don't want to get into discussions of why someone was not approved because at that point a lot of them try to spin a story that something (eviction, usually) never happened, or wasn't their fault. And sometimes they get nasty when they see you're not going to budge.

JR,

At least you know where to send a denial letter.

Sorry, jkj. I can be a bit hot-headed. Sounds like you handled the response well.

I don't bother sending out denials, but I will often cut and paste links to their court records in messenger or via text with no comments. I just did this today for someone who filled out the pre-screen saying he had no criminal record and had never been evicted when in fact he has an ongoing LL/Tenant case coming up and had previous possession and DUI charges. I just sent him the links to the stuff and said nothing else. I suspect this person is frustrated because he's been denied several times for the same reasons.

I've been cursed out a couple of times when denying people. Pre-screening without talking to them prevents all of that. I'm guessing 90% don't even respond to the pre-screen request knowing they won't pass.