Posted on 06/19/2021 12:56:16 PM PDT by Stravinsky
In a step toward racial equity and ending housing discrimination, N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday signed the Fair Chance in Housing Act, barring landlords in New Jersey from asking about criminal history on housing applications.
At the state’s first commemoration of Juneteenth as an official holiday, Murphy signed the historic “ban the box” bill (A1919), which advocates say is the most sweeping form of the law in the nation.
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Under the law, landlords will only be able to ask about criminal records on applications if the prospective tenants are a registered sex offender or were convicted for making meth in federally assisted housing. Otherwise, landlords can’t look into criminal history until after making a conditional offer.
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Landlords can run a criminal background check on a potential tenant once the conditional offer is made, and would be able to consider indictable offenses of the first degree within six years, crimes in the second or third degree within the last four years, or fourth degree offenses within a year, according to the new legislation.
The law encourages landlords who find criminal offenses to weigh the nature of the crime, the length of time passed, and how the offense would affect the safety of the landlord’s property and other tenants. If the landlord decides to withdraw their offer, they must explain their reversal.
Tenants who feel discriminated against can file a complaint with the Attorney General’s office, and landlords found to have committed wrongdoing would have to help the tenant find housing.
(Excerpt) Read more at pennlive.com ...
Insanity.
Destroying America one neighborhood at a time.
No,insanity will be when the criminal thug hurts someone and then they get away with it,the landlord gets sued and loses house and everybody is homeless....
In this day of instant information, all you need is their name and birthdate to get all the info you want or need.
I wonder how closely a credit check would correlate with a criminal background check anyway. I can’t imagine that someone with a credit score of 750+ is going to have much of a criminal record that would scare off a landlord.
Seems to me that would make folks with no criminal records and who are happy to volunteer that info jump to the head of the line.
Heck, if it would get me the apartment I wanted, I’d even provide a backround check.
They can’t ask, but you can proffer.
Hint, hint..
Exactly. Like how hard is it for a landlord to have his high school aged kid surf the internet and get any information he needs about a prospective tenant?
I worked a big grocery store a number of years ago and they hired “a new guy”...Nobody would tell us anything about him except he went to jail for minor drug offenses....
His temper was off the charts,he threatened workers and finally he went off the rails and killed a woman who had just come home from church...After he killed himself,we then found out what his real record was ....He was a violent thug who had been in prison for years...Nobody bothered to tell any of us....
With all the crazy a$$ laws landlords have to deal with in blue states, I can honestly say I am glad i don’t have any rental properties. Im a worry wart to begin with. These ridiculous laws would have me up at night.
> ... or were convicted for making meth in federally assisted housing. <
Weird. So if a renter made meth in state assisted housing, I guess that would somehow be okay.
And leave evidence that could be used against the landlord in a civil case?
Not wise.
Best way around this is for word to get out for the law abiding to volunteer the info. With proof if need be.
It can’t be hard to figure what’s up with no work history or years in between jobs..... I was taking of my sickly mother for the last 15 years.....
Equity. More leftist newspeak.
Note to landlords: Educate the public. Ask them to volunteer the info.
The law abiding will love you for it.
I did care of my elderly loved ones. For decades.
Work outside the home was very infrequent.
I’d be screwed if someone was looking for a work history.
Folks are better off offering the info a landlord wants to know.
Juneteenth: No blowback for the criminality of blacks!
“Insanity.”
I think what you mean is “liberalism”.
Perhaps they are indistinguishable in this instance.
What a racist statement... Apparently, Democrats think black and brown people are criminals.
They’ll go back to 1955 and reject people based on how they look while making excuses.
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