Landlord Question and Answer Forum

We are looking to rent a house in Dallas. With the current economic situation, we want to be sure that we don't rent from a person who is likely to go into foreclosure. I have heard of horror stories where renters are asked to move out within days because the landlord has defaulted on house payments. What should I look for to avoid this? Can I ask to have a credit check done on a landlord? Thanks

Anjali, I work for a tenant screening company, <a href="http://www.advantagetenant.com">Advantage Tenant</a>. Basically, any credit check has to have the consent of the person being checked. We are seeing more and more of these requests due to the economy. Your best bet is to convince the landlord to run his/her own credit report, and black out the account numbers, or any other personal info. It's unlikely that they will do this however. Rental property is not as hard to rent these days, since no one can get a mortgage... Your only other hope is if the landlord is a business, you could run a business credit report... but the information is sometimes limited. Hope this helps. It's a good idea, but you would have to work with the landlord to get consent, and they would basically have to order it.

Posted by AdvantageTenant.com ., FL on Thursday, October 16, 2008