Thread: SO how does a property owner handle this AND follow the law?

I saw this at MSN. A property owner wants to rent but is afraid of being fined for renting to illegals....but if he doesnt isnt that discrimination?

" I will usually have a nice couple in their twenties or thirties look at a property and turn in an application to rent. I will run their credit and criminal. Usually it will come back pretty normal; credit might be rather limited or they might have a few outstanding debts.

I will then go forward and sign a lease agreement and collect initial deposit and rent and even take a photocopy of the tenant’s driver’s license before I turn over keys. A week later, however, when I come back to check on my one-bedroom apartment, I will see that a family of five has moved into it.

To make matters worse, in some instances, the people who are on the lease are not the ones living there. A cousin or brother might have been the one I showed it to and after we signed the lease agreement he turned the unit over to his family member and their family who might not have paperwork.

At this point, I have two options. I can try to force the family out. If so, what usually results in the original person on the lease calling and verifying with me that he does live there and his family members just come over during the day and that the kids are just there visiting as well."

I saw this at MSN. A property owner wants to rent but is afraid of being fined for renting to illegals....but if he doesnt isnt that discrimination?

It's possible the landlord could be sued for discrimination, but that's pretty hard to prove in court. The "discriminatoree" would need to have overwhelming proof that he/she was discriminated against because they are here illegally. The landlord can reject an application for just about any reason they see fit.

Contact your local county housing officals and explain your problem to them. It may take a while to find a person that will help you but keep a list of the calls you make and the name of the people you talk to.

Many cities have occupancy ordinances that have been used heavily for student areas around colleges. First order of business is to check with the city to see if they have such ordinances. In those cases, you can file a complaint with the city and they will dispatch someone to investigate and fine if necessary.

Two, a landlord should be able to enroll in the SAVE program or the Social Security number verification program via ICE or the SSA. It would be up to a landlord if they did not want to rent to no match SS numbers due to high risk of rent flight.

If they do this, they must do this for everyone that tries to rent from them white, black, hispanic, asian, etc....

It would clearly be unlawful for the landlord to hold people of different races to different renting standards. However, a landlord can apply such processes equally to all potential tenets.

This is just my opinion, but should not be construed as legal advice. It would be best to seek the advice of an attorney on these matters.

W

We had this problem ONCE. We rented to a young white girl who said she had 2 kids. Turned out she had 5 kids and 2 latino men living with her shortly after she moved in. Her hasty retreat occured because on her rental application she had to state WHO would be living there by name, age, sex, etc...There is also a clause in our rental agreement that states the total occupancy of the household not to exceed X number of adults and children based on # of bedrooms and bathrooms. If a tenant breaks those rules they break their lease and they are OUTTA here. Of course they tore the place up in just a short time BUT - no more headaches and no more illegals.

Isn't it also true that a renter needs to disclose ALL intended occupants? And isn't a violation of those terms without clearing it with the landlord a violation of the lease?

The suggestions of William and florgal are good to prevent much of the problems that could arise.

Psalm 91

We require a social security and driver's license number to run a credit check. We too ask for a list of all persons living on the property. Our lease also limits the number of cars that can be parked on the property and prohibits disabled cars. Our papers are untested as illegals are not a big problem in my area. We have taken the precautions for years and it has worked nicely.

Just strictly as a cya precaution the landlord might want to have the renter execute a strongly worded affidavit attesting that no undocumented persons will occupy the property.

Great idea nouveauxpoor.

Jeremiah 29:11

Originally Posted by cvangel

Isn't it also true that a renter needs to disclose ALL intended occupants? And isn't a violation of those terms without clearing it with the landlord a violation of the lease?

CV, that really depends on what a state's particular commercial housing codes will require. UT is considered a landlord state, and any landlord can make their own lease aggreements, but each and every lease made here has to contain the UT code reference. There is a statuet in UT law which does state all people living in a rental property must be on the lease, and they can be evicted if they are not on the lease. On the flip side of this, those persons must have their names on the lease, but they are not required to sign the lease.