One of my associates has recently joined the boring world of land brokerage and has been training for a few months. A couple of days ago she contacted me to notify me of this public forum for the real estate industry called “Bigger Pockets”. A discussion began on October 9th entitled “Inheriting a ‘sexually violent predator against children’ tenant” was stated by a woman buying an apartment complex in IN. A picture with the “#IBelieveSurvivors” slogan was found on her social media page along with links to MeToo and abuse stories. It is obvious she is no friend to registered persons. [At the time of this writing, the link to the discussion is at https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/624595-inheriting-a-sexually-violent-predator-against-children-tenant].
Brook from IN, the Original Poster, writes, “We had our offer accepted on our first rental property and after looking up the current tenants, we’ve got a convicted, registered sexually violent predator against children in this triplex. Repeat offender. Anyone dealt with this before? There are currently no children in the other two units but kids living within 20′ of his door at the neighboring property. His existing lease is not up until Aug of [20]19 and he’s been in the property 5 years. I am sick about this. Obviously I don’t want to renew his lease but any options before that?” She added later in the thread, “We have little kids of our own and I would be the primary property manager so this is not something we take lightly. I’m completely disgusted and frightened by the whole situation.”
There were numerous responses to this topic, and it is important to look at every response. Nearly every response was negative and some were outright offensive. But it is important to share every post, even the redundant ones, since information posted on websites tend to disappear after a while. This gives us a glimpse into the mindset of those who refuse to rent to registered persons. [Some comments were edited for readability, as some of the comments were poorly written and full of blatant grammatical errors.]
Thank you Derek for pointing this out. I’m glad I saw your comments on that thread, very well done. Even when I lived in a state that didn’t have me on a public registry, I still talked with the landlord and explained my past… it has gotten me rentals every time. Now, even though I am on a public registry, it doesn’t affect me as I bought the property. That’s not an option for many RC’s I know. Again, thanks Derek and your associate for bringing this to light.
Excellent post to read in full with the comments and the examples of how the registry is used in violation of the T&C of it.
Isn’t “The Registry” supposed to be similar to a Membership in The Price Club?
Now on my of software to create, is a monitor for forums like these.
There is absolutely no reason why this information couldn’t be automatically compiled, human filtered and hand picked for use in a future lawsuit, or several lawsuits. Many of these posters are from California, opening saying they wouldn’t rent to sex offenders. This would be in violation of California’s law under section 290.
It’s the idiots posting that are setting themselves up for a lawsuit. It was hard enough to get proof this is happening, but here it is. Out in the open, and in their own words. If anyone was prevented from renting or leasing a property by some of these people, this stuff can help them.
Amazing that one poster, on page 3 of the thread, named “Greg M.,” referred to “statistics” from the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, as well as (not surprisingly) Fake Doctor Karl Hanson, as unbiased sources when replying to Derek Logue.
He has been living there over five years, and just how many violations against other tenants has this person committed in those past five years?
I just finished reading as many of the comments as I could stomach. The real disgusting sick people here are those involved with the real estate. They are collaborating on how to get rid of this tenant who has been a perfect tenant for over five years. God I pray they are all sued for discrimination. The underhandedness, the greed, the selfishness of these property manager is revolting. Only one of them even recognizes that he has not caused a single issue in five years so what is his response—Raise the guys rent, since he has been a non-issue he probably doesn’t want to look elsewhere due to his past. What sickening people. The purpose of renting is in part to provide housing. I guarantee they have all manner of riff-raff in other complexes. They all sound like slum lords, so you know they have many poorly maintained properties and they exploit people down on their luck, but they are hysterical because of a SO. I have see too many of these terrible people.
I did a search for “sex offender” on this website and 50 results came up:
https://www.biggerpockets.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&term=sex+offender
Many of them continue to promote the fear and hysteria.
I received a 60 day notice on Holloween . I was convicted 31 years ago for .261 ,and 289 completed my 3 years parole with no violations but since then my life has been a disaster losing jobs , homes and relationships behind the non punitive 290 registry here in California . My landlord must have used this article as her playbook! She even told the neighbors about me! Same exact thing happened 2 years ago with my apartment in Upland now I’m Fontana . She told my girlfriend it’s to renovate ! Lol yeah right there are 2 duplexes and she just gave my new neighbor a year lease. When we asked if we could re- rent she said we can try but she is changing the way she screens potential tenents. She won’t come 10 feet near me or look me in the eye. (Dirty Landlord) The other 3 tenents are avoiding me like a leper! So here I go again having to register homeless. So sick of this bullshit ! Our mail disappears, our cars get scratched and . This registry is complete bullshit .
What I recommend is all the registrants move to “sunny California” and live in your van until you save enough cash to buy. Worked for me. Park outside those apts in the better and safer neighborhoods and to hell with what the landlords want. Come one, come all and help bankrupt our registry system.
Let’s see… In California the registration statute explicitly says “not to be used to deny housing” making this activity explicitly illegal. I expect in most states the statue is similarly worded, else they would come under quite harsh sanctions and invalidation.
Bear with me for a moment please;
Real estate investors put their money into the activity to make more money. People operate web sites in order to make money.
What we have on this web site is (if in California):
1.) An explicitly illegal activity in pursuit of gain – with written proof of intent
2.) A business facilitating this illegal activity, taking no steps to stop it (Possibly RICO)
I suspect just a little bit of research and possibly some “pretext” conversations with some of these individuals will yield their identities and identify the properties and those victimized by this activity.
The owner/operators of the web site are MUCH easier to identify.
It’s a pretty safe bet that real estate investors DO have fairly deep pockets… In fact after the 2008 financial debacle, some of the largest holdings are hedge funds and other large corporate investing entities.
In a very general way all of this, were it racial in nature, would have long ago brought every civil rights shark slavering from the wood work, with huge payouts for all involved in the complaint, bringing this kind of blatant kind of behavior to a screaming halt.
The way to stop this behavior is to make it cost… Right now, it’s free and in fact pays.
Every judgement becomes evidence of the harm the registration statue causes.
Right now we have mostly anecdotal testimony of harm to call on and the courts, rightly, ignore that.
My question; Why has this not been pursued by the civil rights sharks?
Looks like pay day to me.