Renter Resources

Looking For A Rental Unit

When you are looking for a rental unit, the most important things to think about are:

• The dollar limit that you can afford for monthly rent and utilities.
• The dollar limit that you can afford for all deposits that may be required (for example, holding and security deposits).
• The location that you want.

In addition, you also should carefully consider the following:

• The kind of rental unit that you want (for example, an apartment complex, a duplex, or a single-family house), and the features that you want (such as the number of bedrooms and bathrooms).
• Whether you want a year’s lease.
• Access to schools, stores, public transportation, medical facilities, child-care facilities, and other necessities and conveniences.
• The character and quality of the neighborhood (for example, its safety and appearance).
• The condition of the rental unit.

You can obtain information on places to rent from many sources.  First is by calling Cook & Company Realty, Inc to see what is available in the Lake County area.   Many Internet Web sites list rental properties. Local newspapers carry classified advertisements on available rental units. In many areas, there are free weekly or monthly publications devoted to rental listings. Local real estate offices and property management companies often have rental listings. Bulletin boards in public buildings, local colleges, and churches often have notices about places for rent. You can also look for “For Rent” signs in the neighborhoods where you would like to live.

Inspecting before you rent

Before you decide to rent, carefully inspect the rental unit with the landlord or the landlord’s agent. Make sure that the unit has been maintained well.

Also, look at the exterior of the building and any common areas, such as hallways and courtyards. Does the building appear to be well-maintained? Are the common areas clean and well-kept?

The quality of rental units can vary greatly. You should understand the unit’s good points and shortcomings, and consider them all when deciding whether to rent, and whether the rent is reasonable.

Ask the landlord who will be responsible for paying for utilities (gas, electric, water, and trash collection). You will probably be responsible for some, and possibly all, of them. Try to find out how much the previous tenant paid for utilities. This will help you be certain that you can afford the total amount of the rent and utilities each month. With increasing energy costs, it’s important to consider whether the rental unit and its appliances are energy efficient.

If the rental unit is a house or duplex with a yard, ask the landlord who will be responsible for taking care of the yard. If you will be, ask whether the landlord will supply necessary equipment, such as a lawn mower and a hose.
During this initial walk-through of the rental unit, you will have the chance to see how your potential landlord reacts to your concerns about it. At the same time, the landlord will learn how you handle potential problems.

You may not be able to reach agreement on every point, or on any. Nonetheless, how you get along will help both of you decide whether you will become a tenant.

If the landlord isn’t required by law to make the repairs, you should still write down a description of any problems if you are going to rent the property. It’s a good idea to ask the landlord to sign and date the written description. Also, take photographs or a video of the problems. Use the time and date stamp, if your camera has this feature. Your signed, written description and photographs or video will document that the problems were there when you moved in, and can help avoid disagreement later about your responsibility for the problems.

The Rental Application

Before renting to you, most landlords will ask you to fill out a written rental application form. A rental application is different from a rental agreement. The rental application is like a job or credit application. The landlord will use it to decide whether to rent to you.

A rental application usually asks for the following information:

• The names, addresses, and telephone numbers of your current and past employers.
• The names, addresses, and telephone numbers of your current and past landlords.
• The names, addresses, and telephone numbers of people whom you want to use as references.
• Your social security number.
• Your driver’s license number.
• Your bank account numbers.
• Your credit account numbers for credit reference.

The application also may contain an authorization for the landlord to obtain a copy of your credit report, which will show the landlord how you have handled your financial obligations in the past.

The landlord may ask you what kind of job you have, your monthly income, and other information that shows your ability to pay the rent. It is illegal for the landlord to discriminate or harass you because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, ancestry, familial status, source of income, or any disability or whether you have persons under the age of 18 living in your household. With the exception of source of income, the landlord may not ask you questions in writing or orally about your race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, ancestry, familial status, any disability, or whether you have persons under the age of 18 living in your household. Further, the landlord may not ask about your immigration or citizenship status. Although the landlord may not discriminate on the basis of source of income, the landlord is allowed to ask you about your level of income and your source of income. Also, the landlord should not ask you questions about your age or medical condition

The landlord may ask you about the number of people who will be living in the rental unit. In order to prevent overcrowding of rental units. However, the practical rule is this: A landlord can establish reasonable standards for the number of people per square feet in a rental unit, but the landlord cannot use overcrowding as a pretext for refusing to rent to tenants with children if the landlord would rent to the same number of adults.

Credit Checks

The landlord or the landlord’s agent will probably use your rental application to check your credit history and past landlord-tenant relations. The landlord may obtain your credit report from a credit reporting agency to help him or her decide whether to rent to you. Credit reporting agencies (or “credit bureaus”) keep records of people’s credit histories, called “credit reports.” Credit reports state whether a person has been reported as being late in paying bills or rent, etc.

Some credit reporting agencies, called tenant screening service, collect and sell information on tenants. This information may include whether tenants paid their rent on time, whether they damaged previous rental units, whether they were the subject of an unlawful detainer lawsuit, and whether landlords considered them good or bad tenants.

The landlord may use this information to make a final decision on whether to rent to you. Generally, landlords prefer to rent to people who have a history of paying their rent and other bills on time.

A landlord usually doesn’t have to give you a reason for refusing to rent to you. However, if the decision is based partly or entirely on negative information from a credit reporting agency or a tenant screening service, the law requires the landlord to give you a written notice stating all of the following:

• The decision was based partly or entirely on information in the credit report; and
• The name, address, and telephone number of the credit reporting agency; and
• A statement that you have the right to obtain a free copy of the credit report from the credit reporting agency that prepared it and to dispute the accuracy or completeness of information in the credit report.

If the landlord refuses to rent to you based on your credit report, it’s a good idea to get a free copy of your credit report and to correct any erroneous items of information in it. Erroneous items of information in your credit report may cause other landlords to refuse to rent to you also.

Also, if you know what your credit report says, you may be able to explain any problems when you fill out the rental application. For example, if you know that your credit report says that you never paid a bill, you can provide a copy of the canceled check to show the landlord that you did pay it.

The landlord probably will consider your credit score deciding whether to rent to you. Your credit score is a numerical score that is based on information from a credit reporting agency. Landlords and other creditors use credit scores to gauge how likely a person is to meet his or her financial obligations, such as paying rent. You can request your credit score when you request your credit report (you may have to pay a fair and reasonable fee for the score), or purchase your score from a vendor.

Application Screening Fee

When you submit a rental application, the landlord may charge you an application screening fee.

If you don’t like the landlord’s policy on application screening fees, you may want to look for another rental unit. If you decide to pay the application screening fee, any agreement regarding a refund should be in writing.

Holding Deposit

Sometimes, the tenant and the landlord will agree that the tenant will rent the unit, but the tenant cannot move in immediately. In this situation, the landlord may ask the tenant for a holding deposit. A holding deposit is a deposit to hold the rental unit for a stated period of time until the tenant pays the first month’s rent and any security deposit. During this period, the landlord agrees not to rent the unit to anyone else. If the tenant changes his or her mind about moving in, the landlord may keep at least some of the holding deposit.

Ask the following questions before you pay a holding deposit:

• Will the deposit be applied to the first month’s rent? If so, ask the landlord for a deposit receipt stating this. Applying the deposit to the first month’s rent is a common practice.
• Is any part of the holding deposit refundable if you change your mind about renting? As a general rule, if you change your mind, the landlord can keep some – and perhaps all – of your holding deposit. The amount that the landlord can keep depends on the costs that the landlord has incurred because you changed your mind-for example, additional advertising costs and lost rent.

You may also lose your deposit even if the reason you can’t rent is not your fault – for example, if you lose your job and cannot afford the rental unit.

If you and the landlord agree that all or part of the deposit will be refunded to you in the event that you change your mind or can’t move in, make sure that the written receipt clearly states your agreement.

A holding deposit merely guarantees that the landlord will not rent the unit to another person for a stated period of time. The holding deposit doesn’t give the tenant the right to move into the rental unit. The tenant must first pay the first month’s rent and all other required deposits within the holding period. Otherwise, the landlord can rent the unit to another person and keep all or part of the holding deposit.

Suppose that the landlord rents to somebody else during the period for which you’ve paid a holding deposit, and you are still willing and able to move in. The landlord should, at a minimum, return the entire holding deposit to you. You may also want to talk with an attorney, legal aid organization, tenant-landlord program, or housing clinic about whether the landlord may be responsible for other costs that you may incur because of the loss of the rental unit.

If you give the landlord a holding deposit when you submit the rental application, but the landlord does not accept you as a tenant, the landlord must return your entire holding deposit to you.