Girlfriend not on current lease, new apt application rental history effects? (apartment complex, evictions)

[bms432]

My girlfriend has been living with me at my current apartment since I moved in, and since my lease ends at the end of next month, we are going to be applying for a new apartment soon (I've already gotten one application). I'm on the lease here, but she isn't. Management doesn't know about her. I know it's stupid and seems shady, but her credit has been very poor until recently and we figured trying to get her added would be a lost cause (and neither one of us know anybody who would be willing to co-sign). I would try to get her added now but it's so late that I figure there's not much point.

We are applying together for our new apartment since her credit has improved, and our combined income is over three times the rent. I am wondering how a new prospective landlord might feel about seeing her notating "not on lease" on the rental history section of the application. The requirements state that 6 months of verifiable rental history is required, which seems like it could be met by the previous residence section (apartment complex she lived at for a year before this; on lease), but I'm worried we'll be seen as shady because of her not being on the lease here. We both have totally clean backgrounds, no evictions or complaints in our histories, have had steady jobs for years, mediocre credit scores, and our combined income is sufficient. Can any landlords weigh in on this? If all other aspects of the application were agreeable, would this be a red flag to you? Are we going to be out of luck?

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

I think you should tell the truth. That she moved in with you, but was not on the lease.

Pull her credit report and see if your address shows up as her current address on it.

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action

This will show that she's been living with you. As a manager, when I pulled credit reports, I always checked the current and previous addresses listed. I did this to see if the info on the application matched it, and if there were any missing addresses that the applicant didn't want me to know about. This could indicate a bad landlord review.

In your case, it would show that she did live with you.

Then, when I call the landlord up and ask for a reference on the two of you, he may say, I know Joe, but I don't know anything about Suzie. And I'd say, well, they say they've been living together in his apt. And he's say, Oh really? And I'd say, did they cause any problems? Did they pay the rent on time? And hopefully, he'd say, No, no problems, and the rent was always paid on time, but I don't know anything about this Suzie person.

Then, I'd know that 1) you didn't tell the LL she moved in; but 2) there were no problems.

This would tell me that you two have been successfully co-habitating, and you were so low-key that the LL didn't even know she was living there.

And then, if your other stuff looked good (income, credit, her other landlord reference), I'd very likely rent to you.

Good luck!

[bentlebee]

Does her drivers license show she was living there?

Not being on a lease doesn't mean no papers show where she was living. For us it would not be an issue if the rest will show to be okay but we would have some issues if no papers even show she was living there.

That still doesn't mean we would not approve her but we may ask for a higher security deposit.

Often people try to avoid putting drivers licenses on the physical address to keep getting government assistance in a different state or different address.

We go by proof and not by a moving mouth and words.