David Brauer Wrote:
Bill - as one who lives near "problem tenants" (who were later evicted), I'm sympathetic to property owners' concerns about over-regulation.
However, reading the Strib article about the renters who paid over $100 for four application background checks gave me pause. It seems to me the property owners need to pool their information and resources to lower background-check fees (for example, one fee good for all applications). Otherwise, some regulation seems needed. $100 or more for the right to get an apartment seems usury for many poorer renters.
Dennis Plante Responds:
Someone must bear the costs associated with the pooling of resources to reduce the costs to renters in submitting rental applications. Who bears the cost? In the current situation, it's the specific renter looking for the apartment.
For meticulous landlords operating in poorer neighborhoods that are actually trying to be both good business people and good neighbors to the community, screening tennants is a costly process.
Maybe it is a trend that will unfold in the future. One application fee covers all properties. I don't see it happening however, unless government is willing to subsidze the program, or a new industry is spawned, which underwrites (finances) landlords and tennants for the rental transaction. Otherwise, if such an ordinance is passed (limiting application fees), the costs will eventually get passed-on to the very renters we're trying to protect - those that are honestly trying to get their feet back-on the ground, but have "bumps" in their past credit history.
The question begs to be asked, why DID the woman in the story have to submit 4 applications to get an apartment? And who should pay for this process?
Dennis Plante Jordan
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