Thread: To Turn Away a Customer It Would Take ...

How rude or shady would a customer have to be for you to refuse to rent a unit to the person?

What are the red flags that keep you from pulling out the rental agreement in the first place? Or will you rent to just about anyone, even against your better judgment, and just kick them out if it's necessary?

There are a few things that have convinced me that it would not be wise to rent.

1. Didn't speak the language, so I couldn't be sure that they understood what we do, and what they owed.

2. Not enough money to pay a first month admin fee of $7.00 (all that would have been necessary for the first month.)

3. But the clearest hint I have ever received was "How long until you sell my stuff at auction?" Can you guess my answer?

Well, let's see,
1) Intoxication (apparent/done this before, I made-up another reason such as we didn't have whatever unit size they wanted available), I don't deal w/drunks/druggies....can't stand it! DON'T NEED OR WANT IT AROUND ME!!!!!
2) Prior foreclosure tenant here....(Learned that the hard way!)........
3) Apparent that they are broke as all get-out/balk at our very low deposit then start scrambling w/whomever they are with for some money, that person doesn't have it, etc.
(Another situation to make-up a reason for space unavailability).........

Originally Posted by jcarlisle

... Or will you rent to just about anyone, even against your better judgment, and just kick them out if it's necessary?

Yep, that's pretty much what I do. As long as they can pay the first month's rent I will rent to them. I have rented to some "interesting" folks over the years, and only a very few have disappointed me to the point that I have had to evict them. You can't judge a book by its cover, ya know.

I had an experience in refusing to rent to a "gentleman". Its a bit more complicated than just someone walking in to rent though. A man had some things stored in a unit belonging to someone else and that person moved out and the gentleman wanted to rent the unit instead of moving his stuff out. I had previously been made aware of his illegal activities from the newspaper and law enforcement so I told him that I couldn't/wouldn't rent the unit to him and asked him to remove the items from the property. SOOOOO not happy. He left and then called our main office and made a complaint to anyone he could speak to ...Gonna Sue sombody! (so of course, it got directed to the owner) and while he backed me to the "gentleman", I felt in no uncertain terms that I was lucky to still have a job.
I told him (owner) I didn't think it was in the best interest of the facility to have this man as a tenant and why. How could I have handled that better, oh wise ones?

I wish to be clear, My owner is one of the good ones...great ones to work for. No dispersions on him. I know he must make sure the butt is covered in all aspects. I just want your wisdom on how I should/could have handled that before it got that far.

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure it would be extremely difficult/if not next to impossible for someone w/his verifiable by law enforcement illegal activities to sue anyone....I can probably guarantee that it was a "scare-tactic", my ownership would back me 100%.....not too cool that you felt that your job was threatened in upholding the safety of your facility AND the owner's, strange.......AND also strange that somone in the "gentleman's" position would be so argumentative, goes to show I guess.

We won't rent if,

1. You have no ID to provide us at time of rental along with contact info
2. You are up to no good
3. Past auction account