I hope someone can help with this..

Recently, my husband and I signed a 1 year lease. The landlord asked for our driving licenses in order to do a background check on us. In the meantime, she saying that whoever was in charge to do the background check couldn't do it without us being present. Now she is asking us to go to the Police Department and do our own backgrown check. As part of the deal is $500 for condo association fees. It is my understanding that they should do the background check. I don't see any sense in going to the Police Department for this...it is the landlord's responsability (in my view, at least). My husband is an ethnic minority here in the U.S. and he feels that the landlord is discriminating us. While I understand that a background check is needed, I don't get it why we should go to the Police for this! I checked Florida Law for Rental Agreements but I do not see any comments for or against our dilemma. My husband told her he felt discriminated and to give us our money back. If we do ask her for our money, does anyone know if there are any legal implications to this? Do we need to tear the lease or have a written statement that she agreed with the lease agreement to be broken? I do not feel comfortable dealing with this lady and it does not look like a good start. The apartment is nice etc. but the police issue bothers us. Any ideas as to whether or not this is legal?

Thank you very much!

How did you sign a lease before the background check was done? That's not normal at all. Also, the background check is typically included as part of the application fee (between $25-$35 in my experience). Check with Acorn to see if they can help ACORN Housing Corporation

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is there a stipulation in the lease that you have to get a background check done?

Its you signed the lease, but did not sign anything stating that you agreed to have a background check done, you should be able to get you money back.

whoa this is nuts. she should be doing the background check herself. get out of this situation. if she's pulling crap like this now then she could do something worse in the future.

This is a bunch of crap! Your potential landlord is being pretty shady. There would never be any reason for a renter or lessee to go to a police department for a background check.

No matter how nice the apartment is, I wouldn't comply with that. Either just drop the idea of living there or get a free consultation from a lawyer on whether or not you have a discrimination case.