Legally Refuse To Rent To Attorneys
Andy's question: Apparently he has a tenant applicant that is an attorney, and he wants to know if he can legally turn down that applicant merely based upon the fact that he's an attorney, his concern being that attorneys can be very difficult to have as tenants.
Yes, actually you can turn down somebody for their profession. They're not a protected class, so attorneys are not a protected class. You are welcome to turn them down. The key is however, you actually have to have that be a universal rule, so you can't take it case by case. You can't turn down this attorney and then later on down the line take another attorney unless you change that policy. So we have to treat all tenants exactly the same, so every tenant applicant gets treated exactly the same, the same exact criteria.
So if you're going to turn down attorneys or doctors, anybody like that, it has to be universal rule. But personally speaking, I've never had a problem with attorneys or judges as clients or as tenants. If anything, we've had trouble with med students. They're just a little bit newer to the world than the rest of us. I'm not saying every doctor's a little bit on the spectrum, but sometimes some of them are. So if you're going to block somebody, maybe not attorneys. Good luck!!!
