I am a fairly new landlord with a small complex with 5 apartments. I recently lost a tenant due to an out of state job transfer. I immediately got to applicants apply in the same day. I ran both applicants on a site called
http://www.tenantverification.com/ and the first tenant had ok credit and meet my income requirement however the second applicant had outstanding credit (almost 100 points more) and a higher income ( about 5,000 more). My applications have a clause require you to sign off agreeing on a credit check. I offered the apartment to the second applicant and contacted the first to let them know that I had chosen a different tenant.
A couple of days later I started getting calls from the first applicant claiming that it was discrimination due to age, mostly its been about the refusal to rent to people his age, much of it has been ranting. The first applicant the one I didn't rent to is in his 20's. The women I did rent to is in her 40's. Both of them are white, have no criminal history and no eviction records. The guy has only one prior apartment. Will I did note that the man was in his 20's the credit and income where the major deciding factor. If the situation had been reversed I would have rented to him. However if they had similar reports I probably would have rented to her due to issues I've had with a couple in their 20's breaking lease.
I do admit i have more older people. Mostly due to the fact that they generally tend to have better credit and more renting history then someone in their 20's. At least the ones that have applied. I do have a couple that is in their 20s and a 30 year old man and his 8 year old daughter, so its not like I only rent to anyone 55+. The other to tenants are over 50 and the tenant I just lost was in her late 40s. I am located in Florida and the area I'm in does tend to get a lot of older people.
