Then they included the pet on the lease and charged additional rent to compensate. We discuss the issue in more detail and offer suggestions on how to allow pets and minimize losses on our pets pages. A tenant with a history of violence or destructiveness must be given careful scrutiny. Past instances of violence or destructiveness may considered in assessing a residential tenant's ability to coexist peacefully with other tenants. For example, a property owner may reject an applicant whose former landlord reported that the applicant was arrested on several occasions for disorderly conduct at the former residence.
Many states now allow a review of criminal records.
Property owners and managers may, therefore, establish reasonable guidelines to assess the prospective tenant's ability to pay. For example, the owner may require that the rent not exceed 30 percent of a residential applicant's income. In assessing the prospective tenant's ability to pay, the property owner must consider all income that the tenant has a reasonable expectation of collecting in the future. This includes welfare, social security income and disability income. Some owners try to deny housing to beneficiaries of government programs, which may be construed as a discriminatory act.