Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Re: Reasons you can turn down an applicant

You of course have the right to reject someone you honestly feel might not be able to pay the rent. But one must look at how you rejected them. Did you directly state to them that inability to pay rent was the reason, had you already found some potential renters who were better candidtes, did you say your wre listing allteh reasons for not accepting them as potential renters, did you correctly state that you were accepting their application but there were economically more qualified applicants, can you show that in the past you have rented to any disabled, minority, etc. people [citing your son's condition is worthwhile but they will say you put up with it only because he is your son and you love him].

You need to be very careful in how you handle such situations. In your case, be aggressive by sending a letter stating the economic reasons for finally accepting someone else and say that if in the future there is a vacancy do they want to be on the list of possible tenants.

If you are really very worried, it might be worthwhile to hire any atorney to spend about an hour writing such letters.

Good luck.

Re: Reasons you can turn down an applicant

I hate to answer your question this way, but there are far too many factors that would need to be reviewed to tell you whether or not you have exposure. You need to review this matter with a real estate attorney right away before it becomes a complete nightmare for you. Its headed that way very quickly from your description.

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