Rental owner asking for too much info?

SapphireCounselor · May 2014

jcbride2015 said:

Lolo is right about the credit check thing. But I've also been asked for all this type of info in the OP without (or in addition to) an actual credit check. We had to prove we (or in this case, our guarantor bc we are not loaded) make 40x the rent each year. Or that we had full rent for the year already in a bank account.

Realtor fees here (NYC area) are always paid by the renter. Which really sucks because you basically must have a realtor if you want any chance in this market. We got around it by renting from a large management company with no fee, but we pay slightly higher rent than if we rented from a private landlord, so I'm sure it evens out in the end.

Here's the other side of the coin though-- why are we, as renters, not examine our landlord's finances? We lost a TON of property after Hurricane Sandy because our landlord was not financially sound enough to drain out the water and make necessary repairs. All of our stuff, including heirloom furniture, sat in the standing disgusting water for days. Finally our next door neighbor (who owns her unit) paid to have our apartment drained because the water was leaking into her home. Then it took the landlord a month to give back our security deposit.

This is another major reason we now rent from a reputable management company. It's rental suicide to ask those kinds of questions of your landlord, but you really need to be able to count on your landlord to make basic repairs and upkeep. If they can't even come up with $2000 to pump out floodwater (when they own a building with ten units, probably bringing in upward of $30k/mo in rent), something financially is off.

This is a GREAT point! I know of so many apartment complexes where literally hundreds of residents have been forced to move out because their land lord forclosed on the property. In any rental market, this sucks, but especially if your area is really competitive it can mean that people are forced to move out of town. This is always always heartbreaking.

lovesclimbing · May 2014

Thanks for your input guys.

Hmm, I don't think I've had a renter do a credit check before. We are looking for houses on Craigslist and a local FB group. Our current renter we found on Craigslist and she is really really awesome.

I understand some car information, like make and model and color, so they can know what cars are "supposed" to be there. However, license plate number and year just seems over the top compared to everything else.

@Ven&Radio Yea, H and I both thought identity theft when we heard how much they wanted.

H and I are not going to pursue this house. H looked at it and it's a trailer. It's been renovated and is in pretty good shape, however the floor is slightly not-level. Also, while this trailer is nice and has a clean yard, it's in a trailer park with several other trailers that all have old cars, junk, etc. in the yard. Also, H and I feel that the rental price is too much.

KeptInStitches · May 2014

lovesclimbing said:

Thanks for your input guys.

Hmm, I don't think I've had a renter do a credit check before. We are looking for houses on Craigslist and a local FB group. Our current renter we found on Craigslist and she is really really awesome.

I understand some car information, like make and model and color, so they can know what cars are "supposed" to be there. However, license plate number and year just seems over the top compared to everything else.

@Ven&Radio Yea, H and I both thought identity theft when we heard how much they wanted.

H and I are not going to pursue this house. H looked at it and it's a trailer. It's been renovated and is in pretty good shape, however the floor is slightly not-level. Also, while this trailer is nice and has a clean yard, it's in a trailer park with several other trailers that all have old cars, junk, etc. in the yard. Also, H and I feel that the rental price is too much.

All the car info is standard, especially if it's controlled parking or tags in a controlled lot. It lets them keep track of what cars belong to tenants and what don't. It's not done just for street parking generally.

erinlin25 · May 2014

I have rented a house that asked for personal info like that (it is on the generic renters application) but our landlords did not have us put social security numbers or bank accounts, but we had to say these are the types of accounts we have w/ average balances; credit cards, do we own a car, etc. It's more so they know what sort of income you have and expenses so they know you can afford the rent.

Cookie Pusher · May 2014

We had to submit all that information, plus had a credit check run on us for our current apartment. We live in a stupidly affluent suburb where rents are pretty high (especially for non-city living), and the management companies get so many inquiries from people who have no way of keeping up with the rent payments. They take all the information and the credit check into account before they accept new tenants. FI wasn't able to qualify here on his own, so we had to put my name on the lease too. We also have parking permits for our lot, so they required all our vehicle information to issue the stickers.

RebeccaB88 · May 2014

The hell I'd be giving out most of that information. I've rented and I now own. Some of that stuff wasn't even on my mortgage application.

They need to know how much money I make a month, but my account numbers and balance are none of their business. Same as loans and other obligations. They'll get it on a credit check (and I doubt I'd rent from someone who never ran credit checks). Car info they will get after the lease is signed. I also wouldn't be giving my SSN or DL number to some yahoo who just has a house sitting empty. They need to prove to me they're using an agency or realtor before I give that personal of an info out, or at least insured against fraud, etc.

I think you made the right decision.

Rental owner asking for too much info?

Re: Rental owner asking for too much info?

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