<p>Saw this ad on craigslist. Is this a legal ad, or does it break the housing non-discrimination act on account of age?</p>
<p>I know dogs are not a protected class and I am pretty sure undergrads are not either</p>
<p>“Undergrad” isn’t an age. It sounds like they’d rent to someone 18-22 that isn’t a student.</p>
<p>To me it sounds like they don’t want beer cans flying out of the windows and people puking in the shrubs at 3am.</p>
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Nah, they would probably also rent to someone 28-32 who is a student.</p>
<p>Being compared to an undergrad. If I was a dog I would sue.</p>
<p>LOL musicamusica.</p>
<p>Doubt it breaks anti-discrimination laws. It is also common in many areas with large student populations like those in the Boston area. </p>
<p>I also wouldn’t be surprised if the Judge/defendants asked if those students couldn’t just live in the dorms. </p>
<p>Some landlords I’ve talked with later have said the transient nature, immaturity of some, rowdiness of some, possibility of damage to apartment/fixtures, hygiene, and concerns about whether they’d have to go through legal hassles of hounding co-signers if the undergrad tenants failed to pay their rent on time are some of the concerning reasons why they’d rather not rent to undergrads.</p>
<p>I thought only senior communities could have these age laws?</p>
<p>Musica! lol Right, even doggies won’t mess their nests!</p>
<p>Lol I agree with musica! Dogs are much, much cleaner than 95% of the undergrads I’ve met. I’d take a large furry dog over a human roommate any day!</p>
<p>Anyway, no I don’t think it’s discrimination. It would be an interesting case to follow though if it had ever been challenged. Any idea if this type of policy has been challenged anywhere?</p>
<p>I imagine if the undergrad in question could show an adequate income and pass a credit check on his her own merits that there wouldn’t be too much of a problem. Of course, very few undergrads would qualify.</p>
<p>Probably wouldn’t pass muster with Craigslist – so you can flag it with them & they’ll remove it. (Let them make the determination as to whether it is discriminatory). </p>
<p>Other than that, I don’t think you should worry about it. It would be easy enough for a landlord to have their own non-discriminatory housing policy that effectively excludes students, simply by requiring a credit check & demonstrating a certain income. So basically there are 2 ways for a landlord to discriminate – either brazen and openly, or else covertly, without announcing it. So this Craigslist advertiser is being brazen rather than covert… but at least the students aren’t wasting their time calling or trying to view the apartment.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to Craiglist’s policy statements:</p>
<p>[craigslist</a> | about > FHA](<a href=“craigslist | about | help”>craigslist | about | FHA)<br>
and
[craigslist</a> | about > state fair housing laws](<a href=“craigslist | about | help”>craigslist | about | state fair housing laws)</p>
<p>It’s not at all clear that the statement would be prohibited, but it is phrased in an offensive manner so if I had seen it, I would have flagged it.</p>
<p>In my experience this is fairly common practice. For whatever reasons, some landlords feel that renting to undergrads is too risky.</p>
<p>Food for thought… I work at a large insurance company and we won’t insure apartment complexes that can possibly be construed in any way as student housing. Our apartments can’t rent to large numbers of students or they’d lose their insurance.</p>
<p>Son ran into this five years ago. It was two brand new buildings (tore down old buildings to beams) and rebuilt for 8 units. They sat empty for about 8 months while the owners decided what to do with them. They had a property management company to do the renting and maintenance. We applied but they just basically stalled. We asked them what the problem was and they said that the owner didn’t want to rent to undergrads - they wanted professionals, grad students, science students and athletes. Not sure why on the last one but that was one category that they allowed for undergrads. I arranged a meeting with the management of the property management company and convinced them that our son would be fine there. They rented the place to us and he was the only one there for the Fall semester. Then a single, older guy moved into one of the open apartments the following January. Another unit had tenants sometime in the Spring. They had all eight units rented for the following semester - the folks across the hall were undergrads so they clearly relented on their requirements - my guess is that they didn’t have a choice on tenants. The folks across the hall had loud parties, left beer cans and bottles in the hallways and on the balcony, left trash on the balcony and they were gone after a semester. One of the units was rented by grad students - two indian couples - they were never seen. I think that they worked from 9 AM to 12 PM classes, teaching and studying. Perfect tenants I think.</p>
<p>These apartments are above a bank and a restaurant - and they didn’t want tenant activities interfering with the businesses on the ground level. Daughter is finishing up this semester (except for one course) so we’re moving out this month.</p>
<p>The first place we looked at was a townhouse condo. We went and had a look and I couldn’t believe that people lived there. The place was an absolute pigsty. Apologies to pigs - similar to dogs. I couldn’t believe that people would leave the place so messy - my guess that this is the norm in student apartments but my sample size is small. Yes, dorms are a good thing.</p>
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I’m surprised they showed it to you in that condition. We never show apartments that aren’t ready to be rented. It’s a waste of time for us and for the potential tenants, who if they would rent it in that condition are not the type of tenants we want ;). </p>
<p>We have rules against partying in the lease. Over the years we have had quite a variety of student tenant situations, some cleaner than others, lol. One time H loaded the pop and beer cans/bottles into the back of his truck and got $96 at the bottle deposit return.</p>
<p>I have the feeling that the rental agent really didn’t care who it was rented to.</p>
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<p>Our place had a ton of rules. I don’t know where the sheet of paper is now but one
of the rules basically said no pets, and that includes goldfish.</p>
<p>Yes, a piece of paper is good protection. Right.</p>
<p>I think that you sign a piece of paper stating that you’ll observe the rules and that they have the right to break the lease if you don’t follow the rules. I’ve seen them kick people out so it apparently works.</p>