Hello everybody,

I am trying to rent a house and I am really skeptical about renting it to couples with an infant(s). I am afraid that they will not pay the rent, and then, since they have an infant, it will be kind of hard to evict them. Does the law protects them or does it treat them like anybody else who does not pay rent? I do not know if that is true. I would like to get some facts. I live in Florida

Thanks,

Ruben

Hello Ruben:

Couple things.

If you want to go into the landlord business, you should become intimately familiar with the rules of the landlord business. We have a copy of them right here at the top of the real estate page on a "sticky note".

Once you do read them, you'll find that the law doesn't protect PARENTS from eviction.

I also haven't found that new parents are more of a credit risk than anybody else. Indeed, I think job stability, income and rental history would be a MUCH better way to assess someone's creditworthiness.

So, instead of looking at their family dynamics, you should be looking at their credit report.

excon

You are close to being discriminatory with your thoughts about not renting to a couple with an infant. If you would not rent to them, based on your feelings, and they found out why, you could face some problems.

They are no more a risk than a single person renting, or an established family renting ( a couple with older children). Check the credit report, background check with police, and references.

If the couple does not abide by the terms of the lease, then they are to be treated accordingly. Does not matter if they have a baby, would not matter if they did not. They are your tenants and the rules apply to all who rent from you.

Instead of looking at family makeup, look at family history. Do a credit check and background check. Ask for references and contact them. That will tell you how likely they are to be deadbeats.

I used to rent to people with infants and dogs. I would even put that in the ads I ran. I had good results with people who had kids and even better results with people who had dogs. Nobody wants to rent to them period and when they would rent an apartment they generally were good tenants knowing full well they couldn't rent anywhere else. This was in South Florida.

[QUOTE=rdiaz22]Hello everybody,

I am trying to rent a house and I am really skeptical about renting it to couples with an infant(s). I am afraid that they will not pay the rent, and then, since they have an infant, it will be kind of hard to evict them. Does the law protects them or does it treat them like anybody else who does not pay rent? I do not know if that is true. I would like to get some facts. I live in Florida



It would be no more difficult to evict a couple with children than without -

I think you are very close to discriminating here and would be very careful about expressing these views when questioning potential tenants.

And what happens if you rent to a couple and THEN they have a child - do you intend to evict them for that reason?

This stuff brings a stiff fine in NY but, as I said, I don't know Florida specifically.

And yes, the law protects "them" and treats "them" the same as everyone else when it comes to not paying rent and eviction.

(I actually have no problem with couples with children; they tend not to move around as much, tend to stay in the same place - in my experience.)

You can not "NOT" rent to a couiple with an infant, if you don't, you can be sued for more money than you have or ever will have for discrimination against them.

As a landlord you can not discriminate and must follow the housing administration laws closely.

So even thinking this is a bad thing.

Thanks for the advice. I was not discriminating anybody. If I did, I did not mean it that way. It was mentioned to me by a friend and that is why I posted it on here. I wanted to get some feedback from people out there. I usually go by people's credit history and also I make sure that they have a current steady job and that they will be able to pay the rent.

Thanks again,

Ruben