Artificial Intelligence Is Making The Housing Crisis Worse
Artificial Intelligence Is Making The Housing Crisis Worse
Landlords are using AI to screen their tenants, heightening errors and discrimination.
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Holdup "application fee"? Fuck this late stage Capitalism shit really
Oh it's vile.
Lots of people list a property, take loads of applications, each with a nonrefundable application fee (often $100+), then close the listing and pretend it was leased out. They wait a bit and repeat the play. They can rake in thousands of dollars for literally making a posting on a website, and repeat this often. And it's often desperate people victimized too: not only are these people renting so they're already in a vulnerable situation, the people willing to pay high application fees typically are desperate to get a lease.
I've also seen places that make you pay an application fee, and as part of the screening process they run a credit check; if they aren't satisfied with your credit score, they'll deny you and of course keep the application fee. What's more nefarious about this though is that they don't give you a score cutoff; you don't know if your score meets their criteria until after you've paid a nonrefundable fee.
That should be illegal.
To be entirely fair the score isn't the only determining factor. My credit is around 690 with perfect payment history except for one delinquent student loan account from 6.5 years ago and I still get rejected for things that "should" only require a score of > 640.
Not surprising unfortunately. There's no accountability or transparency; they can deny any application they want for any reason, and don't have to tell you why. As long as they don't come out and say it's due to being a member of a protected class (which they can act on indirectly, just can't say it out loud), they can get away with any reasoning.
I have to argue with people about that. You are 100% correct you can be denied jobs, homes etc even protected classes. It happens a lot in these right to work states were they don't have to tell you why you don't get the job or why you were fired.
I have been a victim to that twice myself with no recourse.
And I thought having the renter pay agency fees were a scam. That shite wouldn't fly in Europe and many places in Europe are forcing agency fees to the owner
Man. I'm lucky I got my place as easily as I did. Here in the UK, but it was my first viewing, "yeah this place is cool, any offers?" "Well we have 15 booked in to see it after you" "alright, I'll pay the full amount". Agreement with the seller the next morning, no chain so no fuss, moved in three weeks after.
My brother, by comparison, went through absolute hell like you described.
I think application fees can have some use given that a person needs to spend their time reviewing it. Also without a fee someone could apply to hundreds of listings without even looking at them. But with ai, the former example doesn't work nearly as much. $100 is too steep for the latter
I don't buy it. The landlord is already extracting money via rent seeking. That's what pays for the "work" they have to do in the applications