rent are being told they need to pay money to even apply. An Orem woman says she paid over
and over to different
landlords and rarly even got a
call back. So she decided it
was time to Get Gephardt!
This is not an isolated
incident. These are just
a few of the comments I got
today on a promo I posted for
this story. Utahns are
being told to pay application
fees that sometimes turn out
to be fees for nothing.
in the hotel room nats
Brenda White says she
doesn't want a lot... Just
a place for my family. So we
can have a normal life. This
is not normal. No,
living in a hotel is NOT
normal but they found
themselves on the street after
their landlord decided to sell
the place they had been living.
How long have you been
looking for a place to live?
We've actually been looking
since about well, since about
April. But even looking
for a place isn't cheap. nats
of showing matt the paperwork
Brenda says every time she
submits a rental application,
the property manager is
demanding money to run a
background and credit check.
She says she's honest with
them - that she has a
bankruptcy from last year. I
say, hey, we have a bankruptcy
on there. So if that was going
to be a problem, I'm not
paying the fee. But the
reason Brenda called me is
because she says the
application fees feel
predatory to her. Even
being upfront, she's told to
go ahead and apply, and pay -
then - nada. they don't
call you back In total,
Brenda says they've paid more
than $400 to over a dozen
landlords. I can't afford to
keep paying. Predatory
application fees are closely
regulated some places.
in DC for example, they're
capped at $50. or in
Maine, there's a ballot
initiative where voters next
week will have the opportunity
ban applications fees outright.
Here in Utah, there's a
law that says application fees
must be disclosed, but that's
it. a renter can waste easily
$1,000 Just to apply,
Francisca Blanc is with the
Utah Housing Coalition.
She says in this market with
not enough housing, they hear
stories like Brenda's all the
time. multiple tenants are
applying the same time for the
same unit Blanc has a
solution. She thinks that
once one landlord has run a
background check, the tenant
should be able to take that
background check with them on
to the next So the renter is
not gonna waste so much money.
It would save tenants
money and property managers
time - but that would never
work says Brad Randall.
Every landlord, or every
apartment group can have
different criteria.
Randall is the chair of the
rental housing association
which is made up of landlords
and property managers.
Randall says they have
successfully fought off laws
in Utah that would have
regulated predatory
application fees by promising
to police the bad actors in
their industry themselves.
the goal of the landlord
should not be to say, let's
see how much money we could
prop make profitably from an
application fee.If a landlord
does that and they get in
trouble legally?So there's not
legal ramifications in the
Utah law. The punishment
would be kicking them out of
their association. As for
the victims of predatory
application fees - the
association has set up a fund
to reimburse the would-be-
tenants. nats of IDKL what -
but I need a breath here to
pivot on the subject a little
bit But Randall believes
unethical behavior is rare -
and that most of the people
who are frustrated by having
to pay fees over and over
again should look in the
mirror and stop applying for
places where they should know
they won't qualify. before
you go and spend 30 bucks, 50
bucks, 20 bucks, whatever it
is, read the criteria,
landlords work very hard to
review those criteria multiple
times per year and publish
those. brenda baking cookies
Brenda says she never got a
refund from a single landlord
to whom she paid an
application fee. But what
she did eventually get: ONE
$35 fee THAT PAID OFF!
After several months bouncing
hotel to hotel, they finally
have a place to live.
GEPHARDT: HOW DO YOU FEEL?I
FEEL GREAT. RELIEVED. HAPPY."
The rental
association says a landlord
should only process one
application at a time, and
once they find a worthy
tenant, should refund the fees
to everybody else who paid.
IF YOU HAVE A
PROBLEM YOU CAN'T SOLVE, GIVE
ME A shot at it. THE
NUMBER - 385-707-6153, or
email me at matt@ksl.com.