Can A Landlord Require A Credit Check After 3 Years? (lease, tenant, eviction)
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I have been living in the same house for 3 years now, have paid the $1,200 rent every month on time. The first year the property was managed by a rental company, but then after that the owners of the home decided to not continue paying them, but never had me sign another lease, so for the last 2 years I've just been living there month to month. So last week I get an email stating that now they want me to sign a lease (which is fine) but they also want to do a credit report on all adults living in the house. Now my credit is not great, in fact it's pretty sucky and currenly around 590, but that is about 20 points higher than when I moved into the home. I am worried that these people are looking for a reason to evict us, but is it legal to say after 3 years of paying rent that they are going to kick us out because of my bad credit (even though it's better than when I moved in)? The thing that worries me even more is in the email which they sent last wednesday, it stated they were only giving me me 5 days to decide if I wanted to stay in the home. I immediately replied back and said I did intend to stay, but that I didn't see the need for the credit check but I would sign the lease, and now it's been over a week and they haven't replied back to me. I have been looking into other homes just in case these people are trying to screw me over, but it's frustrating because I really don't want to move, and there aren't many options where I can keep my son in the same school!
Since you are a month-to-month tenant, it is legal to ask you to vacate the premises, although proper notice (usually 30, sometimes 45 or 60, depending on your local/state laws) is required.
If you want to stay in the property, it sounds like you need to consent to the credit check and fill out a lease. If you don't want to do that, start looking for a new rental.
I find it hard to believe that they would kick you out for the results of a credit check. If you have been a tenant for 3 years, and paying on time, I think that is more important than a number. Were I the landlord, I would rather have a tenant with sub-par credit, but one who has been a faithful tenant, than kicking that tenant out and dealing with all of the costs of re-renting (and then worry about the new tenant paying on time even if their credit rating was higher).
Since you are a month-to-month tenant, it is legal to ask you to vacate the premises, although proper notice (usually 30, sometimes 45 or 60, depending on your local/state laws) is required.
If you want to stay in the property, it sounds like you need to consent to the credit check and fill out a lease. If you don't want to do that, start looking for a new rental.
I find it hard to believe that they would kick you out for the results of a credit check. If you have been a tenant for 3 years, and paying on time, I think that is more important than a number. Were I the landlord, I would rather have a tenant with sub-par credit, but one who has been a faithful tenant, than kicking that tenant out and dealing with all of the costs of re-renting (and then worry about the new tenant paying on time even if their credit rating was higher).
Yes, that would make sense, but my landlord isn't the smartest person in the world. I think all this may stem from the fact that my girlfriend has been temporarily staying with me until she moves to NY. He made it clear in the email that he wants credit reports for ALL adults living in the house. But when I replied I told him the same people on the original lease would be signing the new lease. I'll never understand why landlords get so pissy about people staying over, if they are still getting their rent on time, and the person isn't destroying anything, then what should they care? And I've never understood what is defined as "living there", my last girlfriend was there almost every night, but she had her own place even though she only stayed there once a week at most, but to me she didn't "live" in my house and I certainly wouldn't have wanted her to sign a year lease on it
The landlord typically needs to give you 30 day notice to move, but as the above person said, it depends on the state. It's not an eviction. An eviction is a very bad blemish on your credit report. That occurs when you break terms of the lease such as not pay, getting a pet against rules, moving people in against the lease terms.
Leases often state that you can't have guests for longer than 30 consective days...or other wording. This is to prevent you from allowing others to move-in and not be on the lease. Check your lease to see what your lease says about this.
The reason landlords do this is :
1) to prevent you from allowing 20 people to live in the home and trashing the place.
2) to prevent criminals from moving into the home if the landlord wants to restrict this
3) to make sure landlord approves (credit, income, eviction history, etc) anyone that moves into the home.
IF you allow others to move-in and they are not on the lease, you can move-out and leave those unknown people living in the home. Then the landlord has unknown persons with unknown background living in the home. If they don't pay, then landlord has to evict them. When the occupants are unknown, the eviction process gets difficult. What if they had prior history of evictions and trashing homes and have a history of criminal drug activity. Landlord would not want these people living in the home.
Last edited by sware2cod; 02-02-2012 at 09:14 AM..
The landlord is well within their rights to ask you to submit to a credit check as part of signing a new lease. If you refuse this, it can be grounds for non-renewal.
The landlord can ask you to state your intentions of staying or not in a certain time period, but they still need to extend you the proper amount of time for requiring you to vacate the property. This is generally 30 days, but may be different depending on where you live.
Landlords require that all people residing in the house be listed on the lease and have checks performed in order to limit their liability and provide them greater legal protection if it came to eviction (basically what sware2cod said). The amount of consecutive days someone can "live" there without being on the lease is variable and should be stated in the lease. Sometimes it is as few as 15 days, sometimes it's 30 days. Most also contain an exemption provision that can be granted at the landlords discretion for extenuating circumstances.
Overall, nothing your landlord is doing is illegal and I'm sure they are somewhat prompted by the fact that your girlfriend has been living there. At the end of the day though, you are month-to-month and they could ask you to leave tomorrow as long as they give you the appropriate amount of time to do it. My guess is, they want the protection of a lease and you should want one as well. I would view your history as my tenant with far more weight then I would a crappy credit score. I might even grant an exemption to the girlfriend staying there as long as it isn't going to be for a year, lol.
In most states the landlord does not need any grounds for non-renewal. They can refuse to renew a lease anytime it expires. For a month to month tenant the landlord can ask you to leave any month with the proper notice.
It makes no sense to me to do a credit check on a tenant who has been living there and paying rent for 3 years, their record of rent payments is more important then anything a credit check would tell them. The credit check is just an unnecessary expense at this point.
Seems to me that the LL is finally deciding to get his ducks in a row and requiring leases for his tenants. He's perfectly within his legal rights to require a credit check of both you and your live-in girlfriend and, as said, this has nothing to with "evicting" you since you're a month to month tenant. Right now either with or without a credit check he can give you the required notice to leave and can also require that if he offers you a lease it will also require your girlfriend to be listed as a tenant. Nothing illegal about this at all.
I'm just going to reply on the question about the credit history check. That is not allowed without your permission. Since you are already living there the owner has no chance less he give you notice to vacate....
Basically it is up to you, what do you prefer...leaving or staying which probably will require a credit check.
We have people sign when we run a credit report, that we are allowed at any time to rerun it...never did so far but if we have any suspicion than we can do it.
I already have a lease and leaving in the property for one month and my landlord says the association wants me to vacate because I have poor credit and a criminal history. My criminal offenses or in the years of 96; 06; and 07. all misdemeanors and two are withheld of adj. I am going to try and negotiate these terms: Credit; improve credit by time of lease renewal and I cant expunge my record because the cases or withheld adj (FL) . However I am going to try and play the angle of not having any new criminal offenses nationwide in the past 6 yrs and my most serious offense is 17 years old!. My landlord emailed me the one year lease; completed the walk through; excepted $950 to move in and gave me the keys (07/13/2013). Now she saying the association wants me out. HELP! I have until; 08/18/2013 and she gave notice on 08/05/2013 (is that fair?) Not to mention school starts on 08/19/2013 in Florida. I just feel my landlord jumped the gun and now I am paying for it. I moved in on the 07/14/2013. I have already mailed the money order for August rent ($950), but my landlord said they will not cash and they will give back $850 at the walk through minus the app fee ($100). She told me she would pay the app fee in the beginning of our relationship.
Last edited by ju_shaw; 08-07-2013 at 06:03 PM..
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