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How Important Is Rental History?
Your rental history is a kind of credit history — one that shows that you are responsible and make rent payments in full and on time.
Keeping it intact will allow you to live where you want to; bad rental history will narrow the pool of landlords who will be willing to rent to you.
What goes on my rental history?
The paper trail of your rental history is a record of your rental behavior. Have you ever been involved in legal action during one of your tenancies, either from a broken lease or an eviction? What your landlord will find with your social security number is whether there were ever any court actions against you.
Anecdotally, your rental history is the narrative of your behavior as a tenant, as told by your old landlords. For this information, your prospective landlord will want to call your previous landlords, whose contact information will be required on the rental application. Prospective landlords want to know if you ever had a rental check returned for non-sufficient funds, paid your rent late, annoyed other tenants or violated the terms of your lease.
Also, trouble from those associated with you can impact your rental history. If someone in your family or friends that you invite to your apartment damage the property or perform illegal acts, you will also be held accountable, either in fact or by association.
How to repair a bad rental history
If you have some unsavory things in your rental history, don’t despair. Sometimes, landlords are willing to take a co-signer on your lease and/or may require an extra month’s rent or increased deposit. There are also by-the-week motels that are clean and safe and allow you to build up a new rental history. If your situation is dire and/or it seems you have only unsafe rental situations to choose from, contact your local rental assistance agency. Whatever rental situation you choose, do your best to make a clean start of it and wow your new landlord (and future ones) with your perfect tenancy.
No rental history?
Not having a rental history is better than having a bad one. If you are renting your first apartment, for instance, your future landlord will look harder at your credit history as an indication of what kind of tenant you’ll be. Barring any legal entanglements attached to your social security number, you should be in good standing. If for some reason a landlord is wary of renting to you with no credit history, check to see if you can use a co-signer or pay a larger deposit.
Your rental history, like your credit history, will follow you for a very long time, so guard it carefully. But if you do have problems in your rental past, don’t despair. Work hard to get yourself a good rental resume and you can once again call the shots of where you’d like to live.
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Readers Poll
How much will you budget for your apartment move?
- $301 to $500 (33%, 15 Votes)
- More than $500 (30%, 14 Votes)
- $100 to $300 (24%, 11 Votes)
- Under $100 (13%, 6 Votes)
Total Voters: 46
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