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Hello really helpful people—
Right now, I am in the beginning stages of attempting to slog through my mess of a credit situation (long, frustrating story- but aren’t they probably all?), and part of this involves addressing my imperfect rental history. My #1 goal is to be able to get approved for a new lease on an apartment.
So far, I know that the factors preventing this would be:
-awful credit score (510)
-various items of debt- which I am now actively working to fix/pay down
What I *do not* know is what might show up if a landlord were to pull my rental history in the future.
Between 2012-2014, I lived in 2 different apartments where I struggled continually to pay rent on time (job loss + chronic illness stuff). In both cases, I ended up owing them an outstanding balance when I moved out. One is $950 currently in collections (which I will pay off first thing here). The other is weirder. Digging through old paperwork, I was able to find their move-out worksheet, dated 5/2013, which lists my total owed to them as $4,490.79. However, I have never seen this debt show up on my credit report, and don't remember them ever even pursuing it. On this one, I am REALLY confused about how to proceed.
Apart from the obvious financial issues to address, above, I’m also very much wondering what else from those 2 rocky leases might show up on a report. Late payments? Late fees? I have looked and looked online, and can’t seem to find any way to access one’s own rental history.
If anyone might be able to share any insight or advice, I would be EXTREMELY grateful.
Thank you in advance!!!!!
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There are many CRAs other than the "big three" (EQ, TU, EX). Here is a list of most of them:
http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201604_cfpb_list-of-consumer-reporting-companies.pdf
I encourage you to request a copy of your reports for each CRA listed in the Tenant Screening category.
@Anonymous wrote:There are many CRAs other than the "big three" (EQ, TU, EX). Here is a list of most of them:
http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201604_cfpb_list-of-consumer-reporting-companies.pdf
I encourage you to request a copy of your reports for each CRA listed in the Tenant Screening category.
Thank you so much for this!!!
Very welcome. We try to direct people to this CRA list as often as we can.
Well, I *was* able to pull one of the reports finally--and unfortunately, I came up with something kind of unexpected/confusing.
Everything else in the report (criminal history, etc) comes up blank/clean...then, under the category of "Suits & Judgments for Eviction, Possession and/or Non-Payment of Rent", it shows one entry:
Plaintiff: old apartment company
File date/amount: 2/14/14, $0
Results: Possession Only Judgment for Plaintiff
I have tried to do some general research into what this ^^ thing means, and am still just not at all understanding...especially in this context.
The file date says Feb 2014. My lease ran until June 2014, which is when I moved out, having fulfilled the original lease, but deciding not to renew for a second year (all of this in the totally normal, ordinary way that people do it). As I'd mentioned previously, this was the year/apartment where I unfortunately had such ongoing difficulty paying rent-- I know that for many of the months, I was running beyond the due date by several days (and incurring those late fees)...and more than a couple times, I had a 3 Day Notice taped to my front door before I was finally able to scrape together enough cash to pay that current month. The manager at the time had basically just told me, shrugging, that this was a "formality" required of her by the company...and oddly enough (looking back), I remember how common it was to see plenty of these 3 Day Notices on doors throughout the building.
At any rate, though...I am just really needing to figure out a) what this entry actually means, b) what it means for my rental history report, and c) (at the risk of being ridiculously optimistic) if there might be *any* chance of a way to remove/amend the entry-- especially if it turns out not to accurately reflect what happened.
So it seems like quite a stretch, but would anyone reading this happen to know anything about the topic, whatsoever??
Thank you!
Oh-- and I did recently run across this here, while searching:
But I still couldn't quite get my questions figured out...