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

[royal_archer]

As christians we have a duty to bring the sins of our neighbors to their attention and to make reasonable efforts to avoid encouraging their sinful behavior. As citizens of the US we are obligated to stand up against immoral laws. Segregation was defeated by many citizens deciding they were not going to fall under the tyrany of an immoral law. Laws that say who you have to rent to, even if it conflicts with your religious points of view are a clear violation of the first ammendment. While I would not ask you to do anything that would envoke penalties against you, you should attempt everything short of that.

 

[Sagefrakrobatik]

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.

Since when did morals become “objective”? Do you objective as in scientific and not biased?

 

[SteveGC]

Since when did morals become “objective”?

Since God wove them into the fabric of creation. They come from Him, not individuals, and thus, they are objective and permanent.

Something isn’t immoral for one person, and yet moral for another. It is either moral, or immoral…for everyone. Period.

 

[Athanasiy]

There are the hotels which are called the Christian hotels.
This is the example of the hotel for young people , which has a name - ‘’ The Christian ‘’

shelter.nl/

shelter.nl/aboutus.php

 

[JimG]

Since when did morals become “objective”? Do you objective as in scientific and not biased?

It started sometime before the Ten Commandments were handed down. Murder is objectively immoral even though no scientific study was ever taken to determine its morality. It would remain objectively immoral even should a consensus be reached to state that murder is perfectly moral.

 

[a_cermak]

As christians we have a duty to bring the sins of our neighbors to their attention and to make reasonable efforts to avoid encouraging their sinful behavior.

Do you? St. Paul in the letter to the Romans seems to be saying that the Church has a duty to point out sin amongst its members, not sins among the outsiders. In fact, he specifically says they are not to judge the outsiders as it isn’t their place.

 

[royal_archer]

Do you? St. Paul in the letter to the Romans seems to be saying that the Church has a duty to point out sin amongst its members, not sins among the outsiders. In fact, he specifically says they are not to judge the outsiders as it isn’t their place.

If they interact with us and are living on our premisses, are they outsiders? We have not been saying to go out and force morality on others, we are only debating how to address immorality conducted on the property of Christians that goes against the will of the owner of the property.

 

[Athanasiy]

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?

Its a good question , its a good topic , especially when you know that in some hotels or apartments-hotels , the moral atmosphere is so low , but I can not see the way to solve the problem by not allowing the custommers to stay in the hotel , because of our examination of the legitimacy of their matrimonial rights.
The twin room can be easy a double room , even the room with bunk-beds does not solve the problem.
And then , indeed , the question arise ;

• what if they are blessed by the Priest by not registered by the law ?
• what if they are married second or third time ?
• what if even their double room order has nothing to do with any intimate relationships ?
• what if they are not a lovers at all ?

Its indeed the question arise about the legitimacy of our examination

 

[Bobby_Jim]

As others have said, you probably can’t legally discriminate against this. I thought that in most places you are basically required to accept the first applicant who passes the credit & background checks and gets a deposit to you.

Here’s a true story as well… before I was married, my fiance needed to find a new apartment. We were going to be married about 9 months later, at which time I would move in with her (I maintained my own residence until we were married).

However, we applied for the apartment in both our names. Reason? Because we figured adding our incomes together made it more likely that we would be approved. She worked for the Church, which doesn’t pay that well, and we didn’t want the landlord to just look at the income, and reject her on that basis. It wasn’t a huge stretch for her to afford on just her income, but we just wanted to be sure we got the place. I don’t think it was much cause for public scandal, because so far as the neighbors could see, it was just my fiancee living there, with me visiting frequently but not spending the night.

 

[Belle777]

I would never deny somebody a home.
Everybody needs a place to stay, after all.

 

[Athanasiy]

I would never deny somebody a home.
Everybody needs a place to stay, after all.

In some touristic cities its indeed a big problem to find the bed in the high season.
and the people even ready to sleep in the corridor in some couch till the next morning , just not to sleep on the street.
I think the question of the first importance is about our hospitality towards the low budget travellers in those very busy weekends.
Of course , unless it is a five or four stasrs hotel , and the price fixation does not depends from us.
If the business management depends from me , I should do some discounts for the students , low budget travellers , especially in the times when it is extremely busy.
We know from the Scripture that the inns had no place for St.Josef and Maria , in the time when they really needed the warm room.
And some even would blame them for not having the marriage certificate

 

[blaskoman]

Wanted to revisit this issue. Since my original post I have 7 co-habitating couples out of 18 total units in my building. Many of these couples have children out of wedlock. I still have a bad conscience renting to such couples. Sure, many posters have mentioned that I am not responsible what my tenants do behind closed doors. It just seems that the moral fiber of our society is in shambles as it seems common that a great majority of couples live together before marriage, and many such couples forego marriage all together.

 

[crenfro]

Hello.

This is just my opinion so please take or leave it as you see fit.

There may be some moral responsibility here. Christians are supposed to lead others away from mortal sin, not towards it.

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?

Do you own the building? If so, I’d agree with the advice of some of the other posters and see what’s lawful and what’s not – and if it’s in the wording of the lease – get a lawyer to have the leases worded in such a way that they are legal plus don’t violate your faith. Maybe talk to a canon lawyer? Otherwise, like many of the other posters are indicating, because of the laws in place there’s nothing you can do.

I know for something to be a mortal sin it must be serious, willful, and there must be awareness that the sin is mortal.

… Lately though, my conscience has begun to bother me that I have in fact rented to such couples.

Perhaps God is speaking to you through your bothered conscience.

Am I being overscrupoulous (sp?) here?

Not in my opinion, for what that’s worth. Look at a crucifix and see what all our sins did to Our Lord.

Really glad you asked this question. Sure wish more people were bothered about something like this.

God bless you for your post and I’ll keep you in my prayers. Please pray for me.

 

[markomalley]

Wanted to revisit this issue. Since my original post I have 7 co-habitating couples out of 18 total units in my building. Many of these couples have children out of wedlock. I still have a bad conscience renting to such couples. Sure, many posters have mentioned that I am not responsible what my tenants do behind closed doors. It just seems that the moral fiber of our society is in shambles as it seems common that a great majority of couples live together before marriage, and many such couples forego marriage all together.

As has been mentioned before, you are not allowed to discriminate based on marital status or sexual preference (I say this, in the event that you have some homosexual couples renting from you)

First of all, if you want to be absolutely clear of the problem, the only choice you would have is to sell the property and get out of the landlord business. But, based upon the scan of the thread, it does not appear that this is an option you are willing or able to take. So I would study up a little bit on moral theology.

Specifically, I would study up on the subject of “cooperation with evil.”

Since you obviously do not approve of the actions of these cohabiting couples, your cooperation with evil is not “formal cooperation”

However, since the action you take of renting the flats out is related to the couples to live in a state of sin (a conjugal relationship outside of marriage), it would still be material cooperation. If your cooperation was a necessary part of this evil act the cooperation would be “immediate” (in other words, would they be able have that conjugal relationship if you didn’t rent to them?). If you judge that it would, then you are just as responsible as if you matched the couple up and encouraged them to move in together.

If your cooperation is more peripheral (in other words, the rental of the apartment facilitates their relationship but is not essential to it happening), then your cooperation would be considered “mediate” cooperation. You don’t intend for the result to happen, it could happen without what you provide (even if they didn’t live together, they’d still be able to fornicate), but you’re still involved. Most moral theologians that I am familiar with would say that your culpability in that circumstance is very limited.

One question: are you required to sign leases with all of the names of the residents on the lease? Or can you, without running afoul of the law, have a policy of leasing a unit to a single name only?

If the latter, you might want to think about having a new policy of leasing to one person only, regardless of the size of the apartment. In that way, if they choose to have a roommate move in, it is their business, not yours (unless occupancy limits are exceeded). If you had that as a policy, your cooperation would be extremely remote…and I think that any culpability you would have would be virtually nonexistent (about the same culpability as a taxi driver who takes a woman to a medical office building…not knowing that the tenant of the building she is visiting is a GYN who is going to give her an RU-486 pill).

 

[TheWarriorMonk]

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

Ditto.

I’m not familiar with these regulations, but I am not so sure the interpretation regarding unmarried couples is correct; check with an attorney on the matter. I know for certain that many areas do have restrictions on unrelated parties occupying certain units. Renting to unrelated parties has a whole host of problems for the landlord; in particular if they are not on the lease.

 

[Matilda_Bennett]

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