Sometimes, "Fair" Landlordin' Doesn't Seem Fair
Sometimes, "Fair" Landlordin' Doesn't Seem Fair
Sometimes fair doesn't seem fair- but that doesn't make it any less so. The news report here speaks a veteran whose returned home on leave and wishes to stay with his wife. That's understandable, but a bit of a technicality exists in that he is not a party to her lease. He'd be a visitor in the eyes of the landlord- and would fall under their policy that visitors can only stay 7 days.
Guess what? This landlord's policy is more liberal than any I've ever had. Everywhere I've been, the policy for visitor stays has been between 48-72 hours, and with good reason. Boyfriends/girlfriends/baby daddies/baby mommas/cousins/grandmas are all well and good to live in a place and be a part of the lease, but to evade being on the lease by calling folks "visitors" throws up a number of red flags:
- does the "visitor" have bad credit or an eviction history that would cause an application to be denied if there were on it with the other folks?
- do they have a criminal history that would likely see them rejected if they were to apply?
- does the "visitor" have pets such as an aggressive-breed dog, and they're attempting to be a permanent visitor in order to avoid the dangerous animal being rejected by a landlord?
These are but a few of the possibilities which could exist with a "visitor"- and they're valid and justifiable reasons why a landlord would want everyone on the lease if they were to be staying at a property longer than a certain number of days.
Could any of the above apply here? Who knows? The important thing here is that one can't get caught up in the holiday spirit and change policies in effect year-round. One can't "bend" rules in place such as a visitor's policy off the emotional side of things and the fact that this guy is in the military. The wife knew what the lease said when she signed it, and they've both known the husband isn't a party to the lease. That makes him a visitor- not unlike any of the aforementioned boyfriends/girlfriends/baby daddies/baby mommas/cousins/grandmaws that might exist.
I've personally had a number of cases such as this- where a wife is stateside and living in a home while a servicemember is away. That servicemember has been added to the lease each time- knowing that they'd be coming home from time to time. The applicants/tenants typically ask for the servicemembers to be on the lease, quite frankly- as they need the income from that party in order to qualify to rent a place.
I've always had processes by which folks could be added/removed from a lease during the lease term. There's no mention of whether this couple attempted to add the servicemember to the wife's lease, so we don't know if one of the problems above exists where the member's credit/criminal history may prevent him from qualifying.
We do know that when asked, the landlord said he enforces the seven-day rule for all of his tenants- and that's the essence of Fair Housing that we have to keep in mind: everyone must be treated equally, and policies cease being policies if an exception's made every time one asks for it.
While it might seem Grinch-like or un-fair, it's in keeping with Fair Housing principles as best I can tell.
Sometimes, "Fair" Landlordin' Doesn't Seem Fair
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