by Cody Hodge

Created on: August 18, 2010

If you are renting an apartment, you might be surprised as to why your new landlord is going to want to run a credit check on you. What does your credit have to do with you renting an apartment? Well, anything that you pay in monthly installments is going to require a credit check these days. In a lot of ways, it is just the landlord doing a good job by making sure that a tenant is good at paying bills.

When a tenant has a poor credit history, it should send a red flag to the landlord that this person isn't great at paying bills. It might mean that the rent could be late, or possibly not paid at all. The last thing that a landlord wants is to find out that the tenant isn't able to pay. The landlord has to be able to pay the mortgage and other bills on the property, so the tenant needs to pay rent on time.

Credit checks are more than just finding out if a tenant is able to pay bills. If a tenant has a huge debt, it could signal a potentially risky lifestyle that is being lived. If a tenant has a gambling debt, who says a bookie won't come over and try to assault the tenant? The landlord might not care about that, but what about the other people living there? It poses a safety risk to a lot of people.

If a tenant has a big debt, it could raise the possibility that they might try to steal from the landlord. There might not be money stolen, but some people will try to strip the copper wiring out to make money. The tenant might harbor stolen goods in the apartment, and that could make the landlord liable.

On the other hand, if the tenant has good credit, they could possibly ask for a reduced rent, or they might be willing to pay upfront. This is great news for the landlord who knows that the rent is going to be paid, and that they will be able to pay the bills on the house on time themselves.

A landlord has to know what they are getting into when they get a tenant into the apartment. If a landlord thinks that rent won't be paid, then the tenant shouldn't be allowed to live there. It is all a matter of economics and the landlord knowing that the rent will be paid. There is certainly more than a credit check that goes into it, but there is good reason to do a credit check on a tenant.

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