Landlord is wrong to refuse application of ‘welfare’ mom

Question: I am a single head-of-household with two children and receive regular child-support payments. I recently qualified for county income assistance and a work program. A prospective landlord has refused to rent to me even though I qualify financially. She says she does not accept “welfare” mothers. Can she refuse my application because I receive child support and county aid?

Answer: In California, it is illegal for a landlord to refuse to rent to a prospective tenant because of their source of income. Income from any source, as long as it is legal and verifiable, must be counted toward qualifying a prospective tenant. Therefore, your prospective landlord’s declaration that she does not rent to welfare mothers was a discriminatory statement and violated California fair housing laws.

Landlords have the right to protect themselves from renting to tenants who will have trouble affording the rent. To help them choose a qualified tenant that will pay rent on time, landlords are allowed to request information concerning a prospective tenant’s credit history, income and past rental history.

Landlords can establish income standards as long as they are applied equally to all applicants. Landlords can develop a formula that requires a tenant to earn at least two or three times the rental amount per month. But whatever standard is used, landlords must subject every applicant to the same standard and take only the amount of income into consideration, rather than its source.

Tenant can train seeing-eye pup

Question: The local seeing-eye dog foundation has asked me to raise one of the puppies designated to eventually be a companion animal for a legally blind person. When I told my landlord I was getting the puppy, she told me that pets are not allowed.

Can she prevent me from keeping and raising the puppy?

Answer: No, provided you are licensed and/or authorized to train seeing-eye dogs. The law requires landlords to allow service animals as a reasonable accommodation for a person with disabilities.

It also allows people authorized to train service dogs for individuals with a disability to have the animals on the premises for purposes of training.

The landlord can require you to ensure that the dog is on a leash and is tagged as a guide dog, signal dog or service dog.

Talk to your landlord or have a representative from the dog-training organization talk with her.

A demand for next month’s rent now

Question: My new tenancy began on the 6th of this month. I paid the prorated amount for the balance of the month. A couple of days later, the landlord asked me for next month’s rent. I’ve tried talking to her but she insists I pay next month’s rent now. I don’t think I owe the money since I’ve already paid for the current month. What do you think?

Answer: Your landlord may be concerned that you have occupied the property without having paid a full month’s rent. There are two ways a new tenancy can begin other than on the first day of the month. One is when a tenant pays the prorated rent for the remainder of the move-in month and then begins paying the full rent on the first day of the following month. The second way is when a tenant pays 30 days of rent beginning from the move-in date, for example, today to April 13, and then pays the prorated rent for the balance of the second month, i.e., April 14 to April 30.

Because your next month’s rent is not due, the landlord cannot request payment, not even with a three-day pay rent or quit notice. Discuss the matter again with the landlord.

This column is prepared by Project Sentinel, a rental housing mediation service in Sunnyvale, Calif. Questions may be sent to 1055 Sunnyvale-Saratoga Road, Suite 3, Sunnyvale, CA 94087, but cannot be answered individually. For housing discrimination questions, complaints or help, call the state Department of Fair Housing and Employment at (800) 233-3212 or the Southern California Housing Rights Center at (800) 477-5977.