Tristan’s Landlord-Tenant Law Blog
Call us: (414) 276-2850
Tristan’s Landlord-Tenant Law Blog
Archive of: Screening Tenants
I Think I Discovered a Fraudulent Tenant, What Can I do?
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Screening Tenants, Rental Applications, Fraud / Misrepresentation / Comments
Drafted by Attorney Jennifer Hayden of Petrie + Pettit S.C. Identity theft or fraud for the purposes of renting an apartment is growing issue. We have heard there are social media pages dedicated to selling fraudulent identities to individuals specifically to rent apartments as well as sites that will produce fake paystubs, bank account information, credit reports and checks or money orders, along with the more traditional methods such as ...
Read MoreGUEST POST: Wisconsin Rental Income Standards and Section 8 Rent Vouchers
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Fair Housing / Discrimination, Protected Classes, Screening Tenants, Section 8 / Rent Assistance / Vouchers / Comments
Guest post from Tim Ballering - justalandlord.com~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From a Fair Housing perspective, you probably must account in some manner for the value of the Section 8 payment when calculating an income multiplier guideline. I’ve read of the argument made in other jurisdictions that if an owner is using a rent multiplier, that it should be on net rent to the tenant. This is probably not a workable answer for either tenant ...
Read MoreHUD Issues New Guidelines On The Use of Criminal Records In The Rental Screening Process
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Fair Housing / Discrimination, Screening Tenants / Comments
On April 4, 2016 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) dropped a bombshell on owners and managers of residential rental properties in the U.S.HUD's Office of General Counsel published a 10 page guide entitled "Guidance on Application of Fair Housing Act Standards to the Use of Criminal Records by Providers of Housing and Real-Estate Related Transactions." This guide essentially changes the rules as we ...
Read MoreGUEST POST: The Benefits of Tenant Screening
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Credit Checks, Screening Tenants / Comments
This is a blog post drafted by the American Apartment Owners AssociationAlthough taking time to screen rental applicants thoroughly may not seem necessary, failing to do so may cost you considerable time and money later. If you just accept money from an applicant ready to put down the deposit today, it could backfire on you. If you simply approve a tenant after verifying his or her employment because you are ...
Read MoreScreening Prospective Tenants Is a Must --- That Includes Commercial Tenants
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Screening Tenants, Bankruptcy, Rejecting Rental Applicants, Commercial L-T Law / Comments
Those of you that have attended my seminars or read prior blog posts of mine are well aware that in my opinion screening prospective tenants is the single most important part of landlording.These sentiments apply to commercial tenants as well as residential tenants. Just because your tenant is a corporation, LLC or some other business entity does not make make them legitimate.A corporate tenant can also fail to pay ...
Read MoreNew CCAP Bill Introduced
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Legislation, Screening Tenants, CCAP / Comments
A new CCAP bill (Senate Bill 526) was introduced on January 30, 2014 by Senators Grothman, Taylor, Schultz, Harris, and Risser. A public hearing has already been held.Current law allows for any criminal charge to remain on CCAP even if the charge was dismissed.This new bill, if passed, would require the Director of CCAP to remove a case involving a misdemeanor or felony from CCAP within 120 days ...
Read MoreCCAP Is Under Attack Again
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Legislation, Evictions, Screening Tenants, CCAP / Comments
When Senator Marlin Schneider lost re-election a few years ago, I thought that the attacks against Wisconsin's Consolidated Court Automation Programs (CCAP) would disappear. Well they did -- for a while. But Senator Lena Taylor along with Representatives Goyke, Sargent, Kessler, Hebl and Pope haven taken up the torch and are trying to prevent the public from accessing CCAP once again via Senate Bill 234/Assembly Bill 253.These two bills were ...
Read MoreTop 10 Pitfalls That Landlords Should Avoid
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in AASEW, Notices, Screening Tenants, Rental Agreements, Rental Documents, CCAP, Seminars, Property Management, Rejecting Rental Applicants / Comments
Those of you that missed the last AASEW membership meeting on Monday, April 15, 2013, missed a great meeting and a great presentation. The featured presenter was John "Dr. Rent" Fischer, a Wausau-area landlord and rental property manager, who spoke to a packed house that Monday. John's presentation was dynamic, educational and at times pretty darn funny.With John's permission, I am providing you with a link to ...
Read MoreEast Side Landlord "Think Small" Seminar Event on March 13th
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Screening Tenants, Seminars, Act 143 (Landlord's Omnibus Law) / Comments
Make plans to attend the fourth East Side Landlord Think Small event hosted by UWM! This event is free and open to all interested landlords, with a special focus on Milwaukee's East Side.This spring's event promises to be very engaging with featured presenter Attorney Tristan Pettit, who focuses his practice on representing landlords and management companies in landlord-tenant law matters.Topics will include screening potential tenants and recent updates to landlord-tenant laws ...
Read MoreHUD Issues New Rule On "Discriminatory Effect" a.k.a Disparate Impact
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in AASEW, Fair Housing / Discrimination, Legislation, Protected Classes, Screening Tenants / Comments
HUD has issued a new Fair Housing “disparate impact” rule that may cause problems for landlords during the screening process. The new rule creates a new provision entitled “Prohibiting Discriminatory Effects” which defines “discriminatory effect” as situations in which a facially neutral (i.e. not discriminatory) housing practice can become discriminatory if it actually or predictably has an effect on a group of persons that are members of a protected ...
Read More
