legal questions on a rental application

what questions cannot be asked on a rental application

Probably easier to ask, what do you want to ask, and we can answer that.

Applications generally ask for personal info (full name, address, DOB, SSN, phone, who will live in unit, current and prior addresses and LL's name and contact info), employment info (employer, address, phone, job title, wages, dates of emplyment for current and previous employers), credit info (banks, credit cards, loans), vehicle info (make, model, license # to ID car parked on the property), references (personal, relatives, doctor - in case of emergency), If the applicant has ever paid rent late, been evicted, filed BK, committed a crime, violated or broke a lease, if they smoke, have pets, a waterbed, ask for other sources of income besides employment, and have a clause above the signature line to allow verification of employment, rental history, credit reports, criminal background, etc.

[NYK007]

Hi,

I want to take help from you all on the rental application. Kindly provide me help on this thing


NYK

[sunlover]

Once more what questions are on or do you want to place on this application? Questions about race would be no no!

You cannot ask any question that would identify someone as belonging to a protected category sijnce that would open you to questions of discrimination. NO questions about race, color, religion, sex, handicaps, familial status (married or children), or national origin. That said, you can ask the number of people who will be living in the unit, identifying info (names, dobs), what they do for a living, how much they make, where they bank, where they've lived before, why they left there, what credit history or criminal huistory they have, if they've ever been sued or in BK, if they've been evicted, etc. You can also ask if they are US citizens or have legal status in the US since many areas make it illegal to rent to illegal aliens (and give you hefty fines for doing so). But you must ask the same questions and use the same appliaction for all applicants to be fair. (So if you ask a 20 yr old college student his criminal history, be sure to ask the 86 yr old grandmother also.

I suggest you get a copy of the NOLO application and use that, or one that has been vetted and used by local LLs in your area. Those should both be fine to use.

Each State has some government body that licenses real estate brokers, and often leasing agents are considered brokers as well. In my state the licensing agency is called the North Carolina Real Estate Commission. The commission publishes a handbook every two years which costs $44 and it has examples of acceptable tenant applications and lease contracts. In addition it has lots of information about the legal aspects of being a landlord, and the legal requirements of being a leasing agent.

I think that anyone planning to be a landlord in this state should buy a copy of that book. If you do plan on using a leasing agent then you should know what is required of them, and if not then you should know what is required of you.

In North Carolina a landlord who leases his own property without the use of a leasing agent is not required to be licensed, but can (in theory) be sanctioned by the real estate commission if he/she violates commission rules as landlord, although this seems rare as I have not seen such a case in any of the commission bulletins.