I am a renter, and I have been renting here for several years now. Today, given that this is a renter's market, the issue of application fees isn't as great, but it is still there, and it will come back when the market changes.
Whenever I have tried to find a new apartment, I have almost always had to pay a fee, usually $50. The fee was paid before I signed a lease, so if I didn't get the apartment, I was out that money. No landlord ever credited that towards rent, either, which is something I read that others do. Many of my friends who applied for several apartments four or five years ago when the rental market was tight were out lots of application fees without seeing any benefit. It was pretty common knowledge that landlords were profitting from this, too. Is it really likely that the cost of a background check is exactly $50? Probably not. I was a student at the U of M at the time, and the area around the university perhaps has a few more shady landlords, since they know that students without cars don't have many options. >From what I understand, many landlords don't conduct background checks themselves, but use other businesses that provide this service for them. In that case, isn't it just as easy to provide a potential renter with a report as a landlord? A report could be bought by people, with an expiration date of 30 or 45 days, and used by the prospective tenant when applying for apartments. The information would be the same information that the landlords would receive anyway, so there is no "fox in the henhouse" problem, and the expiration date would ensure that the data was timely. >From the tenant side of things, I see lots of problems with using credit reports and criminal records to screen applicants, but those problems are larger than this discussion. I do think that the idea I put forward does address the problem of too many application fees, though, and it would be nice to see. === Nathan Hunstad CARAG Minneapolis, MN PGP DH/DSS public key -- http://www.angelfire.com/mn/freakpower/nhpubkey.txt ________________________________________________ Do you Gonzo?! http://www.angelfire.com/mn/freakpower REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
