Since we have been married all utilities have been in my name due to my better credit score (more than 2x the score). After our recent failed escrow we decided to rent another year but move out of our apartment into a house with a yard.
Many if not most property management companies will not rent to us due to my wife’s terrible score. My excellent score does not matter. Even though my wife is not employed and we stated on the first application that 100% of the payment will be mine and 0% hers, the manager insisted on each person over 18 qualifying individually (only after taking the excessive $70 application fee). We got smart after that and started asking up front about the low score issue.
Most managers are content hiding behind some interpretation of California law to explain if they did not have this policy it would be discriminatory. I guess we were looking too high end on the rentals and there are plenty of people looking with excellent credit. Otherwise such a policy would seem to needlessly reduce demand.
It blows my mind to be honest. But I am more than happy to not rent from such managers.
We recently found a good place after a long and frustrating search at a price 200-250 below what it would easily rent for by an owner who took the time to personally screen us. But the low score made things much more difficult than I thought reasonable.
