Applied for a rental and they HP

[bearsfan34]

So I applied to rent this house and they wanted to do a credit check. Which is fine, but I figured it would be a soft pull like my last apartment. I just recieved a score watch alert and it was a hard pull! Is this normal? Is there anyway I can talk to them to see if they could remove it? I was waiting for two inquiry's to fall off in May and I don't want anymore.

[Adalen]

My rental company did a hard pull as well.  I think it's standard.

[pizzadude]

You can certainly ask them to re~code the inquiry but they may not understand what you are asking them to do. I've seen people report either soft or hard inquiries showing up when a landlord pulls their credit. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

My apartment was a hard pull.

[RobertEG]

I have been studying credit reporting and scoring for a few years now, and I still have no idea how the hard/soft pull distinction is actually administered.  I can imagine the blank looks on the faces of creditors when the issue is raised with them...

Take your example of a consumer-iniated business transaction, which is clearly a permissible purpose for pulling your CR. 

The FCRA never mentions hard or soft inquiries.  Those are administrative conconctions of the credit reporting system.  It can be argued that any consumer-initiated request for new credit or a business transaction that entitles them to access your CR should be coded in a manner that includes it in your CR.  Whether or not FICO decides to score the type of inquiry that was made is a scoring decision.  I have never seen a list of "inquiry codes," but if they provide the inquiree the ability to distinguish when reporting between codes that do or do not score in the FICO algorithm, how is that done?  The same type of inquiry for the same purpose, but someone gets to decide how it is scored (i.e., whether it is coded as a so-called "hard" or "soft" inquiry)?  Do the reporting codes provide for that type of decision-making?  Do the inquirees provide such codes, or do the CRAs record what they believe to be the approriate code based on the purpose of the inquiry?    Or do they get inquirees reported as "soft" by providing a purpose that is not the actual pupose of the inquiry?

Its a huge mystery to me......

[Revelate]

Edit: silly post, redacted though the full idiocy is quoted below if you're looking for amusement (confused house w/car, oops).

[rckstrscott]

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@Revelate wrote:

Moral of the story: rent with a credit card  This was the only reason I ever had a credit card prior to 6 months ago.

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I've never rented anyplace that would not do the credit check.. haha

-scott

[webhopper]

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@bearsfan34 wrote:

So I applied to rent this house and they wanted to do a credit check. Which is fine, but I figured it would be a soft pull like my last apartment. I just recieved a score watch alert and it was a hard pull! Is this normal? Is there anyway I can talk to them to see if they could remove it? I was waiting for two inquiry's to fall off in May and I don't want anymore.

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I am a landlord, and I use a Tenant Screening Service to generate my reports the screening service gives me a copy of the tenants payment profile and credit grade, I do not see the actual tradeline information...  From a landlord's perspective, if you signed the agreement to have your credit checked, I don't see why this shouldn't be a hard pull, you are effectively applying for credit with me, since the total lease amount of $12,600 will be paid out in installments....   Its just like setting up an installment account; furthermore, if a tenant terminates a lease prior to maturity date, the landlord has the right to claim unpaid portions of the lease that resulted from the apartment being vacant.

Typically if a tenant skips out and leaves a mess, the landlord may not be able to rent the place out again for another 2 weeks or maybe longer depending on the market conditions.   I would assume that your lease is similar and that your landlord probably uses a similar tenant screening service.   Considering that I have invested over 40k in cash into my rental property, and I still owe over 100k more on the property, there's not any way in fluffy paradise that I would rent to someone without an adequate tenant screening process.

[Revelate]

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@rckstrscott wrote:

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@Revelate wrote:

Moral of the story: rent with a credit card  This was the only reason I ever had a credit card prior to 6 months ago.

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I've never rented anyplace that would not do the credit check.. haha

-scott

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Oh dear, my post was silly now looking at the thread

House != car, my apologies!

[Anonymous]

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@webhopper wrote:

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@bearsfan34 wrote:

So I applied to rent this house and they wanted to do a credit check. Which is fine, but I figured it would be a soft pull like my last apartment. I just recieved a score watch alert and it was a hard pull! Is this normal? Is there anyway I can talk to them to see if they could remove it? I was waiting for two inquiry's to fall off in May and I don't want anymore.

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I am a landlord, and I use a Tenant Screening Service to generate my reports the screening service gives me a copy of the tenants payment profile and credit grade, I do not see the actual tradeline information...  From a landlord's perspective, if you signed the agreement to have your credit checked, I don't see why this shouldn't be a hard pull, you are effectively applying for credit with me, since the total lease amount of $12,600 will be paid out in installments....   Its just like setting up an installment account; furthermore, if a tenant terminates a lease prior to maturity date, the landlord has the right to claim unpaid portions of the lease that resulted from the apartment being vacant.

Typically if a tenant skips out and leaves a mess, the landlord may not be able to rent the place out again for another 2 weeks or maybe longer depending on the market conditions.   I would assume that your lease is similar and that your landlord probably uses a similar tenant screening service.   Considering that I have invested over 40k in cash into my rental property, and I still owe over 100k more on the property, there's not any way in fluffy paradise that I would rent to someone without an adequate tenant screening process.

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Sorry to bump an old thread but I'm about to rent a new apartment and just wanted to say this: a rental and an installment loan are nothing alike. By that logic, any recurring business is an "installment". No, a landlord gets paid upfront for the use of the property for a month. You are not being "repaid" anything and thus have extended no credit. The lease is simply an agreement to continue doing business together for some period of time which is common in many industries. None of this qualifies as an extension of credit. Checking a renters credit I absolutely understand so as to verify their payment history. But it should NOT be a hard INQ seeing as one is not seeking new credit. Landlords are merely providing a service. If a tenant fails to pay, you haven't lost your principal (i.e. the property). It is especially ridiculous since tenants pre-pay...this is the antithesis of credit!!