If you accept co-signers, are you only checking income or are you running the same screening process?

I've talked to 3 PM's last month who are only checking income for co-signers.

My question to them... are you willing to risk fair housing compliance, contract enforceability, identity fraud, or financial backing by not screening co-signers the same way as primary applicants?

How is the group approaching co-signers?

I’ve been involved in screening most of my career and have seen thousands of property setups.
Credit checks including IDV and document fraud, yes. A great deal of the industry operates this way. At minimum, I usually saw a credit check requirement.
When you say same process as applicant - the only item I would not align on is a criminal screening for a guarantor. Guarantors do not have access to the home/ community and therefore carry a different risk profile.

First, we only allow cosigners to make up income. We do not take cosigners to make uo for bad credit or criminal. Only for the appicant to income qualify. Co signers go thru credit and criminal like a normal applicant and generally have a higher required rent to income ratio. 4x the rent rather than 3x the rent, for example.

They go through the exact process the applicant does. Credit check, background check and income verification at 4 or 5x the rent.

They won't be living at the property so we don't check criminal or eviction history but we do check income, credit and confirm their own housing cost.

Anonymous member 855 that’s not exactly true. A co signer has every right to the apartment that the applicant has. A guarantor, is simply there to assure the rent is paid and doesn’t have any rights to the apartment.

Anonymous member 855 however cosigners have just as much right to the rental

We accept Co-signers/Guarantors at our coliving buildings since we have a lot of students who rent rooms. We have our screening company run the same background with the exception of criminal ( in areas we can still screen for that). They must have excellent credit and make 4x the rent. On our traditional buildings, we refer them to the Guarantors for a bond.

We do not accept co-signers. Only guarantors. Guarantors must make 6x the rent to qualify. We use a third party service that processes all applications. On guarantors, they only screen income and credit to qualify. We also use a service called CoSign that will guarantee for an applicant that does not qualify based on credit history only. The applicant must still meet the income, rental, and criminal screening standards. If they choose the CoSign option, once approved, they would pay a fee to CoSign for guaranteeing the lease.

We are the opposite. We don’t care about their income we require their credit to be good. We don’t accept co-signers to supplement income, only for credit purposes.

Screen everyone....

Same criteria except must make 5 times rent

co signers go through the same screening process also the original applicant should be told that cosigners have just as much right to the apartment and to renters information