I’m looking for a new place to rent.
All of the potential rentals require my rental history, which is excellent.
Recently, one of them contacted my current landlord and they refused to provide my history because they said I had not given them my 30 day notice.
I have not given them my 30 day notice because I do not yet have a new place to live.
The landlord who contacted them has been in the rental business for 21 years and said this is the first time he has run into this. He even had a document I signed giving the landlord permission to release the information to him.
When I confronted my current landlord, all I got was a recitation: That’s our company policy.
So, I Googled around and found that this is now common practice, and there seems to be no legal requirement for the current landlord to provide this information.
I don’t know when this change occurred, but it seems like a coordinated effort among landlord to make it more difficult for tenants to move.
Anyone here have any experience or further insight into this?
There is also no legal requirement for your new landlord to require it. Ask your new landlord if he can bend his “policy”, or accept a rental history from a prior landlord, of adjust the deposit according to their presumed risk. Surely, a person moving back to the USA after working a couple of years in Kazakhstan, or coming out of the military, or moving out of his girl friend’s house, can meet a landlord’s policy.
It could be similar to how many employers now will only confirm that a person worked for them, and the timeline. If an emplyer says their (former) employee was not great, or gives anything less than a glowing endorsement, said worker may sue for defamation.
Your current landlord may really be concerned that if he says “Yea, the guy had loud parties and was often late with the rent” then you will have a hard time getting a new place, and may become, shall we say, resentful. People sue at the drop of a hat these days.
I don’t think it’s a landlord conspiracy, because what would they have to gain?
Baker,
The problem with your theory is that once I give 30 day notice, the landlord agrees to release the information. At that point, the potential litigation risk you describe does not disappear.
As for what would they have to gain? They slightly improve their tenancy rate because people, like me, will think twice about giving notice without having a new residence secured. Also, it reduces their administrative overhead somewhat by not having to process so many rental history requests.
The problem with your theory is that the former landlords aren’t required to give this information. If they don’t want to be bothered they won’t do it. Sorry, once again the system sucks.
Also, as I mentioned, this is a recently development. I’ve always been a renter and never encountered this before. Neither has my potential new landlord. He doesn’t understand it either.
Is it possible to show cancelled rent checks, receipts, or bank statements demonstrating you paid on time every month?
I haven’t rented since the late 70s - does that mean if I decide to sell my house and rent, I’m a bigger potential risk to a landlord because I have no rental history?
ISTM the problem is that if you your current landlord gives your rental history to a new landlord, it’s stellar, and the new landlord accepts you, you now have now reason to give your current landlord 30 days. You could just walkout now and leave him hanging on everything you still owe him. Seems this might be a bigger problem if you’ve damaged the place beyond your security deposit.
Eitherway, once you put in your notice, the landlord can start doing whatever he needs to do to terminate your rental agreement. Dealing with who owes what to whom, a walk through of the place with both of you so you can both agree on any damages and what needs to be paid and whatever else needs to be paid (including an early termination fee if you’re breaking the lease early).
I guess I can see both sides of it. The landlord is, in a way holding your rental history hostage to make sure that you don’t abscond one day. But OTOH, to get your rental history released you need to put in your 30 days notice and now you only have a month to do everything, including finding a place, applying and getting accepted.
I thought about that as I was typing my other post. It might work, but OTOH, as your new landlord, that only tells me that you gave the current landlord a check. I don’t know that it was for the right amount, that it was on time (you could be a month behind), that it cleared every time (maybe some of them bounced). I also don’t know if the neighbors have complained about you, if the cops have been to the house a bunch of times of even if you torn the place up.
Of course, if you did all of those things, you might be better off saying you don’t have any rental history, you’ve been living with a friend/cousin/parents for the last [at least 10] years.
JoeyP,
To clarify, I am already on a month-to-month basis. So I have, in essence, already given notice that I will not be renewing my lease.
Also, my current solution I’ve provided a copy of my rental payment history from the landlord’s online site where I pay rent. I’m waiting to hear from my new landlord if that is sufficient.
-That you will pay your rent on time (show checks or withdrawals instead).
-That you will be there awhile (show checks going back to when you first moved in).
-That you will not trash the property - show pictures of your apartment, invite new landlord over to see for himself).
-That you are a good quiet tenant (get signed letters from a couple of neighbors).
Yeah, I get all that. It requires a bit of work on my part, some of which I’ve already done.
My point is, why won’t my current landlord just release my rental history, for which I have given written permission. Why can’t it just be that simple?
Well, after raising some noise in the rental office about this, I got a very nice call from the property manager, who was not involved in the previous conversations, offering to provide the information if I could just send her my permission in writing. Which I have done.
Her explanation is this is done to protect my privacy, which I appreciate. But when visiting the office, one of my questions was: Is there anything I can sign to grant permission to release this information?" The answer to this and all my other related questions was “That’s not our company policy.”
Well, at least I got past this hurdle, but still don’t quite understand why it took so much time and effort.
That’s what my current place did, checked the credit, verified income through paystubs and asked for a rental reference for a place I been with atleast 3 years.
There was nothing requesting a rental history from previous landlords
I wonder if this is a local thing, I’ve never had anyone ask for one but it’s been more than a decade since I rented an apartment. They’d have to have some kind of alternative to rental history, because I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t want to reject someone like me who hasn’t rented recently (and has probably fallen off the radar for the place I was renting at the start of the millennium) but has paid mortgages and maintained properties for a dozen years or so.