Context

I understand that it is normal course of business for realtors and landlords to request credit scores to verify renters' history and ability to pay. Normally though, they ask for permission to run a credit report, or just straight up ask what my credit is; but, in this instance they've asked me to supply the credit report.

Question: is it normal for realtors/landlords to ask for for the prospective lessee to provide their credit report?

I'd understand if this is purely to avoid paying the fee to credit reporting companies; but, is there anything more that would be concerning? (like privacy or legality?)

Other relevant info

I live in New York, New York The prospective rental is in New Jersey. 5,311 31 31 silver badges 37 37 bronze badges asked Aug 19, 2019 at 17:06 KareemElashmawy KareemElashmawy 475 1 1 gold badge 4 4 silver badges 8 8 bronze badges

There are some home rental scams out there. Are you positive the landlord is really a landlord? A walk-through of a locked house would prove they're legit, but a phone call could be riskier. If you provide the report, there is no paper trail identifying the landlord, in case a scam is committed soon.

Commented Aug 20, 2019 at 14:08 @donjuedo definitely legit. Already did the walk through. Commented Aug 20, 2019 at 14:11 @donjuedo with things like AirBnB, a walkthrough isn’t too difficult for a scammer to pull off, fwiw Commented Aug 20, 2019 at 14:17

@thehole except airbnb's are usually furnished (yet not lived-in), since they are usually short term rentals, and bringing in all new furniture for a short term doesn't make much sense.

Commented Aug 20, 2019 at 19:41 There are also services that provide this for landlords, here's TransUnion's product mysmartmove.com Commented Aug 20, 2019 at 21:23

5 Answers 5

Is it normal for realtors/landlords to ask for for the prospective lessee to provide their credit report?

Not normal, but should be. This approach saves money (these costs are already baked into rent or application fees, so hopefully this saves you money) and it also prevents inquiries which are not a big deal but do have a small impact on credit score (multiples will get viewed as one within a certain time period, but this could prevent any inquiries).

I've been a fan of using a product wherein the tenant submits info and pays for a background and credit check and the results get sent to me, rather than me having to be responsible for handling tenants personal information. This approach of re-using an existing, potentially free, credit report is even better for tenants, as they can furnish them to every potential landlord (assuming more landlords switch to this approach).

I'm going to consider this for future renewals.

answered Aug 19, 2019 at 17:22 70.8k 9 9 gold badges 171 171 silver badges 215 215 bronze badges How would you protect yourself from a prospective tenant constructing a fake credit report? Commented Aug 19, 2019 at 17:32

+1 I have personally been asked for this on a rental application, specifically even using my Credit Karma report that I printed as a PDF and sent along, and it worked great. The nicest part for me is that I don't have to worry that there is some error on a report I didn't know about, as I get to see it before I send it. And if there was information you weren't comfortable sending (account numbers, medical information, etc), you have the option to print it, black it out, and re-scan it before sending on. So it is actually much nicer, from the applicant side, than sending in my SS#, etc.

Commented Aug 19, 2019 at 17:38

@brhans That is a risk, but it seems small, I always tell prospective tenants that credit score is not that important (mostly true, steady income is far more important), so hopefully that helps them feel like there's no need to lie. If everything else checks out (income verification, prior landlord reference) and they are able to create a convincing fake credit report, then I'm okay with taking that risk to create a lower hassle situation for everyone.

Commented Aug 19, 2019 at 17:59

@brhans I would say that faking a credit report is a fraud and can you get in more trouble than what's finding a flat worth.

Commented Aug 20, 2019 at 11:16

Also, there's potentially the issue of the customer choosing the credit report agency that portrays them in the best light (or is this a feature?). The same thing applies with background checks - if someone is told "find a background check company, get a copy of yours, and send it to us", there's an incentive to pick the one that omits the most negative information even if it is not falsified by the customer.

Commented Aug 20, 2019 at 13:20

Normally though, they ask for permission to run a credit report, or just straight up ask what my credit is; but, in this instance they've asked me to supply the credit report

And then you asked,

is it normal for realtors/landlords to ask for for the prospective lessee to provide their credit report?

No, it is not normal. Further, and perhaps more importantly,

it violates the intent of credit reporting (Being able to trust data that was obtained from an independent, verifiable 3rd party source - versus just trusting consumers to tell you accurately if they are risky or not). This is important because the data isn't inherently trustworthy if the consumer handles it before it is provided to the lender/landlord. Consumers with poor credit scores would be highly motivated to fake the report. If the landlord were to correctly request it themselves from a credit bureau, this could not happen.
it violates the terms of service for the credit bureau(s) involved, and likely for CreditKarma as well. You may not care that the bureau isn't able to collect the license fee from your landlord (which it would have done if the landlord had made an official request) but if everyone undermined the system like this, the whole model would fail. Plus, the bureau is providing a service which adds value, so it seems legitimate that they would be able to get paid for that.
it reduces the integrity of the consumer's score (yours, in this case) for future lenders. If the landlord were to pull the score correctly through official channels, it would count as a "hard pull" and would (correctly, as unfortunate as it may be) count against you for the near term - your score would drop slightly, since hard pulls indicate a slight increase in the chance that a consumer will default on future credit accounts.

If a landlord's chief concern is that they don't want to be personally handling your private data (i.e. your SSN), there are third party escrow services that will collect identifying information directly from potential customers and provide the report to the lender, without the lender needing to handle the credit pull directly.

If a landlord's chief concern is that they don't want to have to pay for your credit report, well - maybe they should just make a decision without it, if they don't find it valuable enough to pay for. Credit reports pulled by lenders from a single bureau typically cost $15 or so, it isn't a make-or-break cost when considering the financial impact of an apartment rental contract.

You have to decide for yourself if you're okay with doing this, but ultimately, it's not much different than pirating music or computer software, or any other form of license violation on an intangible product or service.