Is there a Tenant Age Requirement for Renting an Apartment?

In general, there is no tenant age requirement for renting an apartment. Different rental companies do have different age preferences, as do different landlords. You should not be discriminated against for your age when it comes to renting an apartment.

Age Factors

There are some legitimate concerns a rental company may have when it comes to renting to young people and students. If you are very young, you may also have other qualities that make a landlord hesitant to approve your rental application. Most 18-year-olds, for example, don’t have a credit history. A credit report is one of the things that most potential landlords review in order to determine who gets approved for rentals. You also may be asked if you have a checking account and savings account; also, many younger tenants don’t have those yet. Also, employment history is another factor, and most people who are just out of high school have little, if any, work history.

Landlord Fears

Many landlords do prefer to deal with tenants who are not in their teens or college-aged, as there are fears of partying and irresponsibility for young people. A corporate look at how age is viewed can be seen when it comes to trying to rent a car as a college student. Car rental companies rarely rent to anybody under the age of 25, and apartment rental companies are not that rigid, thankfully.

Overcoming the Age Obstacle

When it comes to renting an apartment, you want to leave a good first impression on your potential landlord. Build up your strengths and your weaknesses as much as you can, before you make that first rental attempt. If you have solid strengths and emphasize them, they can compensate for inexperience and age.

For instance, when asked about employment, if you’ve only been working at a campus store for a month, you can also emphasize work done in high school, even volunteer work and hours spent working on school newspapers, etc. When asked about credit history, you can bring along things to show that you have been responsible for the bills you’ve had so far. Perhaps you got your first credit card when you turned 18. If you have been responsible with the card, bring the paperwork to show this. If nothing else, the attention to detail and the effort to prove yourself show that you are being a responsible adult.

Other Solutions

If you fear that you won’t be able to rent in your own name because of age discrimination, ask a parent or guardian if he can accompany you and perhaps co-sign the lease. IF you both speak to the landlord-and he sees that you have a responsible parent watching your back as well-he may even relax his personal decisions about age limits in the building.

Other Forms of Tenant Age Requirements

There are some buildings that are set up just for the elderly. They are set up in cities and towns, and they offer discounted housing for senior citizens. These apartment buildings definitely do have a tenant age requirement, and it varies by housing project.