Family Landlords Raise the Rent to Force One Sister Out
The application form required three years of residential history, employment verification, and two personal references. My current landlord was legally my father, Arthur, though my mother managed the paper ledger.
If I asked Helen for a tenant reference, she would know immediately that I was trying to leave. She would never sign a document that helped me escape Vanessa’s financial shadow.
I filled in my employment details, attaching my last three pay stubs from the marketing agency. For the landlord reference, I hesitated, my mouse hovering over the empty text box.
I wrote down the name of the management company from the apartment I had rented before this one, three years ago. For my current address, I listed my parents’ names but used my father’s personal cell phone number, the one my mother rarely checked.
The application asked for a credit card number to process the forty-five dollar background check fee and the holding deposit. I reached for my purse, pulled out my wallet, and typed the sixteen digits into the secure fields.
