Powerful New Applicant Qualifier v13.1, Business Nuisance Disqualifiers, Released

The MassLandlords applicant qualifier underwent a major revision in May. This is a tenant screening tool and policy for equal housing opportunity. Our default applicant qualifier now makes it much more difficult for applicants to pass if they create "business nuisance," in other words, if they attempt to work around our screening processes. At the same time, this new revision provides more housing opportunity to renters with poor credit, individuals exiting medical or divorce bankruptcy, first-time workforce participants and more.

Our Applicant Qualifier now with Business Nuisance disqualifiers empowers housing providers to enforce the rules on tenant screening and reject applicants who pressure us to do otherwise. Licensed 123rf.

The business nuisance disqualifiers now give members clear policies to apply when applicants attempt to discourage us from using our normal screening processes. This "hurry up and pick me" approach has been a major red flag for years. Yet many of us have wasted a lot of time with applicants for fear of inadequately defending a decision to discontinue the conversation. (Allegations of discrimination are so common, even if many are baseless, that the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination has a multi-year backlog.) Now applicants with low intent to learn and follow the rules can be identified and safely rejected earlier in a documented process.

Half of the applicant qualifier sections have been reweighted to allow passing scores for applicants with housing barriers:

• First-time workforce participants, mitigated by recent educational attainment.
• Applicants fresh off an eviction, mitigated by a cosigner who owns real estate.
• Single-earner households coming off of medical or divorce bankruptcy, mitigated by downsizing.
• Section 8 participants with awful credit, mitigated by a clean eviction record.

The applicant qualifier was tested on a dozen real-world applicants in the first quarter of 2024. Still, it should be customized to suit your business before use. Members should download the new applicant qualifier and incorporate it into their screening processes. Non-members should join: With eviction durations remaining two to three times longer than pre-pandemic, tenant screening is more important now than ever. Our applicant qualifier has been continuously maintained and available for download since 2016.

As a member you must still customize the qualifier to suit your market and business.