Q: Your community has a no-pets policy. A disabled student and army veteran who relies on an assistance dog to help her with post-traumatic stress disorder fills out a rental application. You screen her and find that she owes her former landlord thousands of dollars in unpaid rent and has a very poor credit report. Must you rent her an apartment? 

a.         Yes, because exempting a disabled tenant’s assistance animals from a no-pets policy is a legally required accommodation 

b.         Yes, but only if veteran status is a protected class in your jurisdiction 

c.          No, as long as you consistently reject other applicants with inadequate credit and rental history

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Answer: c 

You don’t have to rent to any person who’s unqualified, as long as you perform screening and apply legitimate, nondiscriminatory criteria consistently with all applicants regardless of disability, race, etc. Rental and credit history are recognized as legitimate, nondiscriminatory qualifications for landlord use in selecting tenants. Thus, as long as you apply those criteria consistently, you don’t have to rent to disabled veterans with unacceptable credit and rental history. So, c is the right answer. 

Wrong answers explained: 

a.         This answer conflates the rules governing pre-rental screening and accommodation of assistance animals. Make sure your leasing staff don’t make the same mistake. If you legitimately determine that an applicant is unqualified, you don’t have to rent to her and the question of accommodating her disability becomes moot. 

b.         The reason b. is wrong is that being a member of a protected class doesn’t exempt applicants from screening. It just means you can’t treat them less favorably because of their protected characteristic(s), in this case, disability and perhaps military status. But you can still reject an applicant if she doesn’t meet your legitimate screening criteria.

For more tips on avoiding discrimination when renting to students, our August lesson, “Avoid 7 Fair Housing Liability Risks When Renting—or Not Renting—to Students,” is available to premium subscribers here.