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Can A Landlord Deny Me A Rental Based On A 12 Year Old Conviction

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  • 05-10-2008, 01:04 PM
    tdog66@att.net
    Can A Landlord Deny Me A Rental Based On A 12 Year Old Conviction
    My question involves criminal records for the state of: California
  • 05-10-2008, 01:56 PM
    aaron
    Re: Can A Landlord Deny Me A Rental Based On A 12 Year Old Conviction
    According to this advocacy site:
    Quote:

    Quoting Overcoming Discrimination Against People with Criminal Records
    California releases nearly 285,000 people from probation and state prison each year. Once released, people with felony records find it next to impossible to secure housing, find a job, get drug treatment, or access public assistance. Discrimination against people who have been in prison is a widespread, day-to-day roadblock for people attempting to re-enter their communities—and it’s legal.

    Under some circumstances, though, it might be worth investigating if the supposed discrimination on the basis of a criminal record is in fact a subterfuge for racial discrimination.

    How are your landlords finding out about your conviction?
  • 05-11-2008, 05:24 AM
    SChinFChin
    Re: Can A Landlord Deny Me A Rental Based On A 12 Year Old Conviction
    Being a "landlord", I do employment, credit, criminal, and public record checks of potential tenants.

    Part of me, the "do gooder" side says giving someone a "second chance" is a good thing. Unfortunately, the laws are such that if a "former criminal", who I chose to rent to, commits another crime, other tenants of mine can sue me for gross negligence for renting to him in the first place, or failing to notify them to begin with, and allowing them to break the lease.

    How do I pay the mortgage if the whole building empties out??

    For instance, the "do gooder" in me had me make exceptions to people who formerly "declared bankruptcy", saying it was so long ago, and those days are behind them. What I found was that two out of three eventually skipped out on the rent, much much higher in proportion to all my other tenants.

    What I concluded was that certain habits lead them to problems to begin with, often returns, chief of which are things such as drug abuse. One guy was bankrupt six years before I rented to him clean for five years after I had him, and suddenly went back to drugs, a problem which I didn't know about, when his girlfriend died, and couldn't work anymore, fired by his own dad, whom he worked for.

    When I had to evict him, the guy looked at me and said "I was clean for over ten years". That's well and good, but does that help me pay the mortgage?? If he hurts another tenant of mine, can I look them in the face and say "well, he was clean for WELL OVER ten years".

    What you want me to do is to "devine the future", and be such a keen judge of character, that the "former criminal" I rent to, such as yourself, is the exception to the rule. Unless I "guessed right", and if something bad happened, I can't forgive myself, nor can members of my family forgive me, if something happened to them, or to face lawsuits from angry tenants for being so "gullible and stupid".
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