Renters pay hundreds in fees with no promise of getting housing
By Jaclyn Schultz
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LAS VEGAS (KVVU) — The rental shortage across Southern Nevada is hitting peoples’ pocketbooks in new ways. People often pay hundreds of dollars or more to apply for available units with no guarantee they will even move in.
Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada said tenants have complained of spending $1,000 or more just in application fees before they even move into a property.
The high costs of searching for a rental is due to steep competition, and a key loophole in Nevada law. There is no limit on how many applicants a landlord can accept for an available unit. Some landlords are taking multiple applications, pocketing the cash, and not processing refunds for all of them.
Some viewers of FOX5 said applications range from $75 to $200, and after multiple rejections, the cost adds up.
“[I spent] in total about $900. A lot of these companies are very greedy,” said renter Lisa Marie Rodriguez, who eventually found a place after around six applications.
She said one property admitted they had a renter, after she paid a fee.
“I called them out on it. ‘If you already had a renter, why did you take my application?’ They stopped answering my calls and emails,” Rodriguez said.
“[Landlords] can charge any amount they wish. There is no accountability in Nevada,” said Aaron MacDonald of LACSN. The organization lobbied for a bill to limit applications to one prospective tenant at a time with some sort of refund upon rejection; the bill did not make it through the legislature.
LACSN plans to lobby for more protections in the future.
The Nevada State Apartment Association backs the practice and potential law for a one applicant at a time process, but has hesitation over refunds for fees.
“There is a lot of work on the back end,” said Susy Vasquez of NSAA, who said background checks of tenants and verification against fraud can be time consuming.
The organization, in partnership with the National Apartment Association, advocates for all its partner properties to review one potential tenant at a time. She advises websites such as Apartments.com have properties that abide by that practice.
“You can apply for that unit. As soon as that unit is applied for, it is removed from the system altogether,” Vasquez said.
Vasquez also advises tenants to ask questions of landlords before you apply and send any money. “Ask questions. ‘Are you accepting multiple applications?’ If they are, it’s probably a unit you need to pass on.”
LACSN said if an applicant has a bad experience with a landlord or property management company, to leave a negative review to warn others.
Other landlords said websites such as Zillow or Realtor.com have individual property owners who are simply looking for a good tenant, and are less likely to cash in on a flood of applications.
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