Legal Question in Consumer Law in Virginia

Re: discrimination due to bad credit??

I get this kind of question all the time, and I'm glad to have a chance to respond in a public forum. Here's the simple answer to the main question: yes, it's perfectly legal to discriminate on that basis. What better basis would a landlord have than past history of paying bills on time? Then, as to the qualification: it may be a breach of contract if the deposit was a nonrefundable advance against rent, or some such thing as that, but probably it was just a deposit required as a refundable show of good faith so the landlord would have reason to check further.

As to the "discrimination" thing: everyone discriminates all the time in lots of different contexts. I discriminate against Italian food because I prefer Chinese. So what??? Discrimination is not illegal. Discrimination on the basis of legally-defined bad reasons is, but only in certain contexts. As a Buddhist from Antarctica, you may not want to have your shirts pressed by a Jain from Greenland. And you've got a perfect right to take your shirts elsewhere to be pressed. Now, the Jain can't refuse to serve you on the basis of your religion or national origin, because he's holding himself out to the public, generally, as a shirt-pressing business. Neither can he refuse to employ you on that basis. But you can refuse to work there, if you like. Suppose you are the president of the largest corporate entity in Virginia, and you don't like muscle-builders. You don't have to hire muscle-builders, as long as you don't make a distinction between male and female muscle-builders. But you can't discriminate against people who don't look good in blue, because the complexion is a race and national origin related factor. You can discriminate against anyone you want to, in any situation, simply because you don't like that person. But if your preference is based on a generalization such as his membership in a group of people who share common ancestry, language, culture, etc., and not because of who he is specifically, then you've got a problem as a business operator.

To get back to the question that was asked: sure, it's perfectly legal for the landlord to discriminate against people with bad credit. Now, if you're, say, of Polynesion extraction, and it turns out that this landlord uses the credit thing as an excuse to get rid of Hawaiians, then the discrimination is illegal.

My suggestion is that you get someone to co-sign with you, or find another place that won't check so thoroughly. And get your credit straightened out!!!