Violation of religious rights?

We provide here a few questions that have been posted in the Community Forums and our answers to them.

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Q1

One of my tenants smokes marijuana on a somewhat regular basis.  When I approached him about it he stated that he does this in practice of his religion and that he will sue me for violation of his rights if I take any actions related to the matter.  Can he really do this and do I face any risk if I begin his eviction?

A1

You should counsel him that it is not an issue of religion but a matter of him breaking the law and, assuming you have a good lease agreement, a matter of defaulting on the lease.   Accordingly, if he continues his unlawful conduct, you must proceed with eviction.   This, of course, assumes that you apply the same rule against other tenants regarding use of illegal drugs on the premises.

Fair housing laws prohibit discrimination of the basis of religion, but your action relates to criminal violations, not on account to religion.

Of course, if marijuana use for medical reasons is legal in your state, you must be sure that the manner in which he is using it is in violation of law of your state.   If he is not in compliance with any medical use law that might exist in your state or if he is dealing drugs, you should be able to proceed with eviction in spite of any medical use law.

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Q2

I have 3 tenants (in their mid to late twenties) living in a townhouse.   I am getting reports from neighbors of their constant weekend parties, loudness, and now I just learned they crashed into a fence at the back of the property.   They are six months into a 1 year lease.   What course of action is open to me?

A2                                                                

Regarding the noise, you can serve them with a written notice, in the manner required by the law of your state, to cease disturbing the neighbors.   You should cite the relevant clauses in your lease agreement, rules of the HOA, and any specific local noise ordinance.   If they continue disturbing neighbors, you could start an eviction, again, in accordance with the requirements and procedures of your state’s law.

If you can prove that they did the damage to your fence, get a firm estimate to repair the fence and demand payment. If they fail to pay, file a lawsuit in small claims court for the damages.   You may be able to instead evict them if they fail to pay for the damage, but that option will likely depend on the clauses in your lease agreement and/or the law of your state.   In either case, getting a judgment regarding the damage provides leverage in collection of the cost and will help in getting an eviction judgment if necessary to proceed with eviction.

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Q3

The names on a credit report are sometimes significantly different than the names on the application.   Nicknames usually are not far from the name applicant wrote down in the application.   Can this be due to the applicant using a SS number that’s not actually his?

A3

Before even obtaining credit reports on an applicant, landlords should first verify identity and make copies of verifying documentation.   ID verification should be considered the most important screening procedure.   It can be worse to pull a good report on a false ID than to use no screening at all.   Photo IDs are obviously the most useful and can include driver license, passport, military ID, photo credit card, student ID, etc.   Differences between different IDs should be questioned.

It is not always possible to independently figure out exactly what’s going on.   It could be something as innocent as an accidental mistake by the applicant when supplying the information or a clerical error by the credit reporting agency. The first thing you should do is discuss the matter with the applicants and see if they have a logical and believable explanation.

However, whether or not there is a valid reason, you should not be depending on only a credit report for tenant screening.   Landlords should always verify ID as discussed above and also reconcile the different items of documentation and screening reports.   This means comparing information on application forms, credit reports, criminal checks, eviction reports, previous landlord inquiries, and employment verifications.

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Additional Information

Most of the issues discussed in these Q&A’s are covered in considerably more detail in our eCourses and/or in our Mini Training Guides.

This entry was posted on September, 2010 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.