Mar 06
As the government prepares a first-ever study of housing discrimination against gays, however, the issue is more complex. How do you design a study to make an applicant’s sexual orientation or gender identity as obvious as race and color?
Irrespective of the legal issues of discrimination, it is simply bad business practice to deny applicants for reasons that have no impact on their ability to be a successful tenant. You want full units, you make more money with full units.
If a prospective tenant has poor payment histories, evictions, violent criminal behavior, drug or gang convictions, or have damaged properties in the past by all means reject them. People who haven’t paid their last landlord won’t pay you. People who engage in criminal actives will drive away the good tenants, annoy the heck out of the neighbors, and ultimately cost you more than they pay you.
For an overview of why you need to be careful with documenting your reasons for rejecting an applicant to defend against unfounded Fair Housing complaints see: http://bit.ly/14hMkg