Landlords Renting To Unmarried Tenants
Question
If an unmarried couple wants to rent our rental home can we have only the man who is working sign the lease? We don’t want to have the live-in lady to have her name on the lease in case the boyfriend leaves as she has no income. If her name isn’t on the lease and he leaves her we could then ask her to leave, but if her name is on the lease then it would be difficult to ask her to leave and she has no means to pay the rent. Also can we refuse to rent to unmarried couples?
Answer
In my opinion, there is almost never a reason to not have every adult resident sign a lease. On the contrary, there are numerous reasons why every adult should be required to sign, some of which are discussed herein.
Federal, state, and local fair housing laws protect against housing discrimination and refusing to allow the lady to sign the lease could be considered a violation of law in some jurisdiction. Before proceeding you would certainly want to research the latest interpretation of fair housing laws at the federal, state, and local levels to determine if there is an applicable statute protecting unmarried couples from housing discrimination, but the absence of an explicit statute doesn’t protect against a discrimination claim. There may be court decisions that apply or the judge that hears such a case may decide to make new case law. I doubt that many, if any jurisdiction allows a landlord currently to use unmarried status itself as criteria for refusing an application. If allowed by law and your rental standards you must be sure to apply your standards to all applicants. Each and every applicant must be screened using the same rental criteria, in the same manner, every time.
However, you probably wouldn’t prohibit a wife from signing the lease along with the husband even though she had no independent source of income. I think you are better to have the lady on the lease even if she does not qualify individually. If the man disappears or dies and she stays on without paying the rent, refusing to vacate, you would have no way to regain possession of your rental except by giving notice to pay or quit and to go through with an eviction. If the court considered he to be a guest and not a tenant, because she hadn’t signed the lease agreement you might not be able to get a judgment against her for unpaid or even damages for which her boyfriend was responsible, but not her, you may be out all unpaid rents and the unpaid damages. This is true for two or more women or men, where one is not a signer of the lease agreement.
At a minimum, landlords should require that each applicant, no matter the relationship to other tenants:
- Be of legal age (18, 19, or 21, depending on state) or an emancipated minor,
- Complete and sign a rental application,
- Provide adequate proof of identity, with at least two forms of personal identification, with at least one being a government-issued photo ID,
- Sign an authorization of release of personal information form for credit reports, employment, rental history, eviction report, and criminal history, and
- Sign the lease agreement.
Every occupant, age of maturity or emancipated (including all spouses), should be named on the lease agreement and be required to sign it. In the event one occupant defaults, you then have recourse against the other tenants The fact that one tenant has no income or assets at the time of application does not mean he/she cannot be collected from in the future – he/she may later be employed, win the lottery, or marry someone of significant financial status. Judgments against a person who had no income or assets at the time the judgment was obtained may be collectable for many years later and in other states. And if the person seeks credit at a later date (including when applying to rent) provides leverage for payment because credit grantors often require payment of unpaid judgments as a condition of granting credit.
If the boyfriend leaves, you could suggest that you would allow the lease to be broken without penalty, but this should be for the purpose of helping her, avoiding any words that suggest violation of a fair housing law. However, if she wishes to stay and later defaults on the lease, but retains possession, you will have to legally evict her or any other person who has moved in, potentially costing you the same time, money, and stress as if she had been a wife, perhaps even more. But this is no different than when any tenant does the same thing.
Again, having even the unemployed person(s) sign the lease assures the ability to obtain a judgment on more than one person. In general, the more people who can potentially be held liable for rent and damages, the better the chance that the landlord will eventually collect what’s owed.
One final issue; if you refuse her as a tenant based on her financial condition, maybe the only safe reason, you would probably need to provide an “Adverse Action Notice” as required under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is “Adverse Action Notice” if a “consumer report” as defined under FCRA was obtained..