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When I was recently checking out online the application for an apartment building, it required information regarding all of my savings accounts. I appreciate requesting checking information as that is how I would pay for the apartment or credit information thanks to the inevitable credit background check. But, savings? Isn't that a bit intrusive? If my credit and salary both qualify, why would a landlord also need to know everything I have saved?
Am I overreacting or is this standard? I have honestly never heard of anyone potential renter being asked this. Appreciate any insights you may have!
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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While I agree that it's intrusive, they have an apartment for rent, and if you want one, you have to play by their rules. If you don't feel like giving them your savings account information you don't have to, someone else will. It just limits your choices by one.
Out here, some landlords are starting to require reserves so that if you lose your job, then know you can still make the rent payments for a certain period of time until you can secure a new job.
While I agree that it's intrusive, they have an apartment for rent, and if you want one, you have to play by their rules. If you don't feel like giving them your savings account information you don't have to, someone else will. It just limits your choices by one.
Yes an ill informed renter would blindly think you were right in saying the landlord makes the rules.
An informed person would know certain inquiries on an application violate housing laws and state laws.
The "business" of renting isn't to overstep renters rights in applying or denying.
The landlord is not the credit bureau . So some information is not for the taking simply because "they" think they can.
What happens to a trust baby who never worked a day. Yet gets regular monthly funds. All the landlord needs to know is the check won't bounce and the person adheres to the valid /legal lease terms.
When I was recently checking out online the application for an apartment building, it required information regarding all of my savings accounts. I appreciate requesting checking information as that is how I would pay for the apartment or credit information thanks to the inevitable credit background check. But, savings? Isn't that a bit intrusive? If my credit and salary both qualify, why would a landlord also need to know everything I have saved?
Am I overreacting or is this standard? I have honestly never heard of anyone potential renter being asked this. Appreciate any insights you may have!
It's likely a really old application form. I remember those from the 80's and 90's, before automated credit reports were readily available. I'd just leave it blank and move on, unless they were looking to that as a source of income.
When I was recently checking out online the application for an apartment building, it required information regarding all of my savings accounts. I appreciate requesting checking information as that is how I would pay for the apartment or credit information thanks to the inevitable credit background check. But, savings? Isn't that a bit intrusive? If my credit and salary both qualify, why would a landlord also need to know everything I have saved?
Am I overreacting or is this standard? I have honestly never heard of anyone potential renter being asked this. Appreciate any insights you may have!
This is NOT standard.
Go to a large, well-known property management website (like Greystar or Morguard) and look at their application.
What this sounds like is the landlord being overly personal, nosy, and judgmental. Aside from passing background, credit, and providing a move-in sum of deposit and rent, getting inside your prospective tenant's bank accounts smacks of unfounded suspicion and distrust.
This is the start of a very awkward and henpecked relationship with this landlord. Do not walk, RUN, and find something else.
Yes an ill informed renter would blindly think you were right in saying the landlord makes the rules.
An informed person would know certain inquiries on an application violate housing laws and state laws.
The "business" of renting isn't to overstep renters rights in applying or denying.
The landlord is not the credit bureau . So some information is not for the taking simply because "they" think they can.
What happens to a trust baby who never worked a day. Yet gets regular monthly funds. All the landlord needs to know is the check won't bounce and the person adheres to the valid /legal lease terms.
But in the end, if the renter needs the place, they'll follow the rules. Especially these days, with "affordable" rent getting harder and harder to find. Sometimes you know they shouldn't be telling you to jump through hoops, but you either do it, or you don't have a place, even though you wish telling them off was an option. (And if what they're asking is sketchy but not illegal, there's nothing you can do about it, anyway. At most you can decline to apply there, but that doesn't stop them from requiring the information from other people who maybe can't afford to not give them what they ask for.)
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