Landlord Question and Answer Forum

I have a unique situation in California. I have 3 medical students who want to rent our house. They have no or low income, as they are all students full time. They have large student loans that they say will cover the rent. We will run credit and backgrounds on them and their co signers, but if they don't qualify based on credit, and we still want to rent to them, can we request the option of them paying the year of rent upfront to cover the whole year, in lieu of "qualifying" based on credit?

It is an option to prepay the whole lump sum for the entire term.

Posted by Irene S, KY on Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Also, you want to keep your eyes open to such variables like if you accept prior rent, you cannot evict them from the rental for anything other than significant lease violation (material breaches). You could not refund and evict. Another thing you need to look at is CA is very tenant friendly and you wouldn't want to be stuck with a PITA for at least a year. The court probably wouldn't allow you to evict no matter what since the rent was pre-paid. Also, CA allows you to collect only 3 months of rent as a deposit. Prepaying for this length of time may be considered equivalent to a deposit and may be illegal. You are, in essence, holding that money for months as assurance of future rent being paid. I hope this helps!

Posted by Irene S, KY on Wednesday, July 24, 2013