Understanding Your Rental Score: Factors & How to Improve

Many landlords use rental scores to determine whether the financial risk for leasing to potential renters is low enough. A rental score is comprised of your credit report, history of paying bills and rent, the accounts you have, delinquencies, income, debt and criminal history. Since a rental score is based on real data, it treats all applicants objectively and consistently. The rental decision is based on how much risk a landlord is willing to take. There is a way to determine what your rental score is.

Step 1

Visit a company website that sells rental histories or scores, which are called consumer reports. Companies such as LexisNexis, PRBC and Core Logic Safe Rent allow you to securely view this information online, typically for a fee.

Step 2

Supply your personal information, such as birth date, Social Security number and current or previous addresses you have lived at when prompted on the website. You will be prompted to supply the website with a method of payment such as a credit card. After your payment is approved, you will be supplied with your rental history and score, in a similar manner as a credit report and score is supplied.

Step 3

Contact your previous landlord for your rental history. It is a common practice for landlords to supply payment history to interested parties. You could use this if you are planning on renting somewhere. However, the landlord also has the right to report any illegal activity that happened while you were renting, whether it was by you or not. This information can be used against you.

Tip

Typically, credit rating companies do not report rental histories, because apartment complex owners do not have the necessary resources to purchase the equipment to report data. It may be a good idea to check your credit history because many landlords check this when approving a tenant. Many companies offer free credit reports once per year.