As an owner of an apartment building, should I rent to an unmarried couple?

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blaskoman

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In my 18 unit apartment complex, I have 5 units occupied by cohabitating couples. Am I somehow morally culpable for renting to such a couple?

I am not ultimately responsible for how my tenants choose to live their lives. Lately though, my conscience has begun to bother me that I have in fact rented to such couples. I know that if I hadn’t, such couples would have easily rented at another building.

Of course, it would be overt discrimination if I had denied tenancy by claiming co-habitation prior to marriage as my reason for denial. If I choose to do so in the future, I have to be silent.

Am I being overscrupoulous (sp?) here?
 
Yes, you are being over scrupulous. You’re in the business of providing rental accommodation to those who can pay your price. It’s as simple as that. The sin is theirs, not yours.
 
Hmmm I’m not sure. Listen to this, true story:

A man and wife owned a little pharmacy where they made a pretty good business. They sold contraceptives and condoms, and medicines and such. When they converted to Catholicism They decided not to sell the contraceptives and condoms. There business was falling. But they held on to their faith. When priests heard about this they began asking people to shop at their store. In short the man and wife had to build 3 more stores. “God repays a hundredfold.”

Hansard: “The sin is theirs not yours.” So if I create a whole new porn magazine and sell it my conscience shouldn’t bother me because they chose to look at it therefore “the sin is theirs not yours/mine.”?

Why don’t you ask a priest?
 
You may need to check with a lawyer as in most states Not to rent to un married couples is against federal housing regulations and is considered discriminatory and its best to check first before making any decisions that could find you in court
 
Augie1530 said:
You may need to check with a lawyer as in most states Not to rent to un married couples is against federal housing regulations and is considered discriminatory and its best to check first before making any decisions that could find you in court
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Agreed, however you should put any restrictions that are not banned by law. You should also take advantage of every opportunity to reinforce moral behavior. For instance if it is legal in your state have the occupants listed by title:

Sole occupant:______________________________
Husband/Father: ______________________________
Wife/Mother:__________________________________
Child 1: ___________________________________
Child 2:___________________________________
Child 3:____________________________________

If the government does not prevent you from doing this, you could use this to reinforce that couple should be husband and wife.
 
I don’t know but I think you should consult a priest, like another poster suggested.

Friends of ours (non-catholic) used to manage an apartment complex; however, they were not the owners. They would witness to the unmarried couples, gay couples, etc.
 
I think it gets sticky when you try to discern the type of relationship two people have before you rent to them.

Would you rent to roommates of the same or different gender?
Would you ask if two guys sharing an apartment were physically attracted to each other?
Would you ask if any of your married tenants were previously married and are divorced?

I think in this situation, your responsibility is to provide a safe living quarters for your tenants and rent to whomever can pay. (Oh, and maybe put a crucifix in a common space). 😉
 
nodito said:
I think it gets sticky when you try to discern the type of relationship two people have before you rent to them.

Would you rent to roommates of the same or different gender?
Would you ask if two guys sharing an apartment were physically attracted to each other?
Would you ask if any of your married tenants were previously married and are divorced?

I think in this situation, your responsibility is to provide a safe living quarters for your tenants and rent to whomever can pay. (Oh, and maybe put a crucifix in a common space). 😉
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If it is a multiple bedroom appartment and on tennent per room you could consider them plutonic roommates. But if the number of occupants exceeds the number of rooms, you should encorage them to seek morality.
 
Since you’re in California you probably don’t have a choice in the matter. The State Supreme Court says that you can’t discriminate on the basis of whether a couple is married or not, even if it violates your religious beliefs. See here for more info.

See a lawyer for more information and to protect your interests.
 
In most cases it is simply illegal to discriminate on the basis of marital status. So you really have no choice in the matter. With the rise of cohabitation vs marriage, it is nearly impossible now for any landlord not to accomodate objectively immoral behavior. The same is true of the mortgage business.
 
SuscipeMeDomine said:
Since you’re in California you probably don’t have a choice in the matter. The State Supreme Court says that you can’t discriminate on the basis of whether a couple is married or not, even if it violates your religious beliefs. See here for more info.

See a lawyer for more information and to protect your interests.
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Does the law prevent you from giving aniversay gifts to married couples? If it does not, I would suggest raising the rates and then routinely giving generous gifts to tennants who get married or as anniversary gifts.
 
royal_archer said:
Does the law prevent you from giving aniversay gifts to married couples? If it does not, I would suggest raising the rates and then routinely giving generous gifts to tennants who get married or as anniversary gifts.
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That would be kind of chancy. If you did it as a matter of business practice, it could still be construed as discrimination on the basis of marital status.
 
By law, as has been posted, you probably don’t have much of a choice.

Besides, what’s the difference between two unmarrieds living in the same apartment and that same apartment being used 3 or 4 nights a week for…um…you know for a couple who aren’t both living there?

You cannot be the moral police; it’s their decision to cohabitate.

You might check with an attorney to see if you can advertise something like “Married couples prefered”.
 
Adrienne5678 said:
Hmmm I’m not sure. Listen to this, true story:

A man and wife owned a little pharmacy where they made a pretty good business. They sold contraceptives and condoms, and medicines and such. When they converted to Catholicism They decided not to sell the contraceptives and condoms. There business was falling. But they held on to their faith. When priests heard about this they began asking people to shop at their store. In short the man and wife had to build 3 more stores. “God repays a hundredfold.”
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As interesting as this story is, I don’t think there’s a direct correlation to the OP. Unlike the deliberate sale of contraceptives, there is nothing intrinsically immoral about renting apartments. I would say that if you advertised, or otherwise enticed unmarried couples to take up residency there, then yes, that would certainly be immoral. But your job as a residence owner is not equivalent to say, renting out “rooms by the hour”. These are places of “residence”, not “sexual recreation”. There is no clear and direct knowledge that anyone who takes up residency there is having sexual relations. At best, to the best of your knowledge, an unmarried couple living together is putting themselves in a dangerous position for the occasion of sin, but not necessarily having sex. You aren’t expected to expect the worst from people, IMO.

But I would also say, be careful about making decisions based solely on the ‘legality’ of the matter (not that anyone here who’s talking about the law is saying it in a way that suggests it is the only factor to consider). Indeed, since the Church does not specifically address this issue, She expects you to follow your moral conscience. And if your moral conscience pointed you away from doing this, it shouldn’t matter what the law says you can and can’t do…you shouldn’t do it. One question to ask yourself is “am I introducing scandal by my decision to remain impartial to the possible immoral tendencies of unmarried roomates?” To answer that, consider another question…“by giving 3 dollars to a homeless man with a liquor bottle in his hand, are you behaving immorally if you consider the fact that the 3 bucks will possibly go towards more drunkeness?”
Adrienne5678 said:
Hansard: “The sin is theirs not yours.” So if I create a whole new porn magazine and sell it my conscience shouldn’t bother me because they chose to look at it therefore “the sin is theirs not yours/mine.”?
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Again, creating and selling porn can not be compared to the business of apartment management. Apples and oranges. The sin of porn belongs to both the creators and the consumers. The sin of immorality of tenants of an apartment building are theirs alone, assuming the owner is not encouraging or condoning the behavior.
Adrienne5678 said:
Why don’t you ask a priest?
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Always good advice
 
It is possible to fix some rules in order to make the hospitality project a more decent place .
First to start from the employees which should look business like and not provokatively .
No female guests , no smoking inside , no drinking parties , no drugs .
May be the Cathechism or Gideon New Testament in the guests room , or Rich Christian library in the apartment .
If there is a video recorder , then it would be nice to have some nice movies documentaries or other ones.😉
 
I think people here are underestimating the frequency of rooming with people of the opposite gender.

My SIL has had two roommates, both men, and was strictly just a roommate. She has never lived with her boyfriend. It is not our place to assume that a man and a woman living together must be in sin, especially if there are no outward signs of PDA. Also remember that in today’s world, it’s virtually impossible to live somewhere by yourself as a young person. You cannot call a sin that you do not see. It’s as simple as that. Common sense may point out the obvious, and yes, responsible Catholics have a duty to not cause scandal, but there is only so much that we can do. A man sleeping under the same roof with a woman he isn’t married to is not an intrinsic evil, no matter how foolish it is.

Not to mention, nowadays, two men or two women living together doesn’t mean anthing. :eek:
 
SteveGC said:
As interesting as this story is, I don’t think there’s a direct correlation to the OP. Unlike the deliberate sale of contraceptives, there is nothing intrinsically immoral about renting apartments. I would say that if you advertised, or otherwise enticed unmarried couples to take up residency there, then yes, that would certainly be immoral. But your job as a residence owner is not equivalent to say, renting out “rooms by the hour”. These are places of “residence”, not “sexual recreation”. There is no clear and direct knowledge that anyone who takes up residency there is having sexual relations. At best, to the best of your knowledge, an unmarried couple living together is putting themselves in a dangerous position for the occasion of sin, but not necessarily having sex. You aren’t expected to expect the worst from people, IMO.

But I would also say, be careful about making decisions based solely on the ‘legality’ of the matter (not that anyone here who’s talking about the law is saying it in a way that suggests it is the only factor to consider). Indeed, since the Church does not specifically address this issue, She expects you to follow your moral conscience. And if your moral conscience pointed you away from doing this, it shouldn’t matter what the law says you can and can’t do…you shouldn’t do it. One question to ask yourself is “am I introducing scandal by my decision to remain impartial to the possible immoral tendencies of unmarried roomates?” To answer that, consider another question…“by giving 3 dollars to a homeless man with a liquor bottle in his hand, are you behaving immorally if you consider the fact that the 3 bucks will possibly go towards more drunkeness?”

Again, creating and selling porn can not be compared to the business of apartment management. Apples and oranges. The sin of porn belongs to both the creators and the consumers. The sin of immorality of tenants of an apartment building are theirs alone, assuming the owner is not encouraging or condoning the behavior.

Always good advice
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A good read to reinforce this position:
jimmyakin.org/2005/08/selling_bad_stu.html
 
Personally, I’d consult a priest about this. I don’t think that I would want to rent to an unmarried couple but then again, I wouldn’t want to land in jail for breaking some federal anti-discrimination law either.
 
blaskoman said:
In my 18 unit apartment complex, I have 5 units occupied by cohabitating couples. Am I somehow morally culpable for renting to such a couple?

I am not ultimately responsible for how my tenants choose to live their lives. Lately though, my conscience has begun to bother me that I have in fact rented to such couples. I know that if I hadn’t, such couples would have easily rented at another building.

Of course, it would be overt discrimination if I had denied tenancy by claiming co-habitation prior to marriage as my reason for denial. If I choose to do so in the future, I have to be silent.

Am I being overscrupoulous (sp?) here?
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In my opinion, you’re possibly being over scrupulous.

I’d certainly check with a lawyer before making any major decisions or policy changes that could come back to haunt you.

Several of the other posters have made some good points. A few things to think about:
  1. You don’t KNOW that two unmarried persons are engaging in sexual relationships.
  2. From a Catholic perspective, you’d have to have the same qualms about divorced and remarried persons without annulments – and you’d run into serious legal difficulties here.
  3. How would you “know”, for example, that two roommates of the same gender were platonic or homosexual (without asking illegal questions).
As in many areas of life, there is frequently a difference between what is illegal and what is immoral with regard to personal relationships. Housing discrimination based on religion or on marital status is a very real issue – and you would need to be very, very careful.

Now, on the other hand, if you were managing a residence complex for, say, a church or a retreat center, in a “not-for-profit” situation, that would be a different story altogether.

But in your case, I strongly suspect that you’re hands are tied. Remember, your best witness is in how you live your own life – and that you’re not not responsible for the sins of others.

Blessings,
 
I wonder if it would be legal to have a policy (uniformly applied), where you only enter into a lease with one tenant, regardless of their status (married, roommates, etc.), and leave it to the tenat, as to who else shares the apartment (spouse, friend, paramour, etc.) with them. That way at least you aren’t creating any legal impediments (i.e. a lease they both sign) for the cohabitating couple to end their cohabitation.

It could be justified as that you don’t want to get in the middle of disputes with multiple tenants (because the unmarried couple breaks up or the married couple gets a divorce etc.) as to who pays the rent.

Of course from a purely business standpoint, this is a bad idea because less people obligated to pay the rent.
 
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