Why now?

[jordanmedical]

Just got a notice from my property management group that they will start reporting rental history to experian on something called rent bureau. I am in the middle of applying for a mortgage. What can this do to my score? Won't it hurt my AAoA? Is this even legal?

[Autumnslight]

As far as I know, there's nothing that prevents them from reporting this. But, the important part is going to be how they report it. It would make the most sense if they reported from the date that you started renting the property. In that case, you'd have essentially a back-dated account with a bunch of (hopefully) positive history. That could actually help your score. It probably wouldn't hurt you in terms of AAoA unless you haven't been there very long, or you have a very thin credit file.

On the other hand, if they start reported with an open date of 2013, yeah, it might hurt your score. If that happened, I'd talk to the management company and see if they'd change it. If that failed, I'd dispute it in writing with the credit bureaus, because I don't think that should be considered accurate reporting.

[jordanmedical]

I just asked about opening date, waiting for a response. I started renting almost a year ago.

[jordanmedical]

They just said it would start as February of this year. I hate my property management, they are always doing something stupid. They just found out I was moving to buy and now this. It's almost like vengeance. My loan officer said it should not be bad but I'm scared he may be wrong.

[DallasLoanGuy]

i believe you have a right to a 100% accurate report.

if they do not show all of your history then they are in violation of the fair credit reporting act

[jordanmedical]

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Ty, I'll have to wait and see when they start reporting next month how it reports. I'll probably have to dispute the opening date if it's not 03/2012 when my lease started.

[DallasLoanGuy]

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@jordanmedical wrote:

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Ty, I'll have to wait and see when they start reporting next month how it reports. I'll probably have to dispute the opening date if it's not 03/2012 when my lease started.

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as long as you have time to allow the dispute to get resolved(over 30 days).... then this sounds like a good strategy