So, my friend and I are looking for an apartment (starting this summer). Due to where we are (princeton nj area) this is all kinds of painful. We found one place, however, that might work for us. Though we’re continuing our search, we’ve decided to put in a rental application at this place to get that ball rolling; it doesn’t commit us to anything and puts us a step ahead if we decide we want the place.
The rental application’s footer ids it as a nolo.com document. They appear to offer boilerplate forms for a variety of functions. Most of the questions are fairly mundane (name, employer, rental history) but one section is asking about bank and credit card accounts. That section requests account numbers.
Is this normal? I could see wanting to know about our liabilities and assets, in a general way, but I feel like this form is requesting entirely too much information. Neither my friend nor I have had a formal lease with a private individual before, so we’re not up on standard practices. Oh, if it matters the landlord is a private individual, not a real estate company.
I’ve seen it a few times in my recent apartment hunting. Each time, however the landlord (private individuals in my cases as well) didn’t mind if I left that part blank. (I was filling out the forms right in front of them). They will want your SSN and date of birth to be able to run a credit check.
Personally, I see no reason to give account numbers away. I can see why a landlord would want that, but I’d be wary of any that actually required it.
It would be a great way of collecting numbers but worthless 'cause one can cancel cards easily enough.
If worst comes to worst and you really want the flat put something like upon leasing signing will provide. Then when you sign the lease, immeidately go to the phone and say your wallet was stolen and cancel your cards.
I work in rental property management and have had people file out thousands of applications. If you write in “provided upon acceptance” nobody bats an eye.
SSN, DOB, and previous residences for credit checks, yes. Bank and CC info? Never seen, and would not provide to someone. If they refuse to consider you as a tenant without it, something shady is going on.