Housing and Contract Work

Another sign of the impending apocalypse is the first time I have heard of someone being turned down for an apartment due to contract work. The coder who was turned down did find another apartment that was willing and is also in a roommate situation so signing a lease with another person, which I would expect to mitigate the contract situation. Apparently not for some landlords.

I didn't ask for more detail so don't know if it was a private landlord or a corporate entity that turned down the renter; I just know that it's a sign o the times. Credit and housing are both going to be more problematic. Even roommate ads on Craigslist are announcing up front that you need to have good credit and a good work history or you shouldn't call them; I read for entertainment purposes because so many ads are hilarious. They make it clear that while they're advertising for a roommate, what they really want is someone to pay the rent without bothering to be there for more than a few days a month; many ads are targeted to flight attendants, since an airline has a hub here, or to people who commute from outlying areas so are gone weekends.

I can see that landlords would view contract work as a red flag, and in some ways that seems reasonable; there's never any idea how long the project will really last or when the next one appears. If the project ends and there's a gap, the landlord might be out in the cold and have to follow the statute for eviction, which takes several months. It's totally understandable that a landlord would want to avoid that.

At the same time, if the proposed renter has good credit and can provide a rental history with no problems associated, it seems like overkill to deny the apartment.