Incomplete past rental info on an application - yay or nay?
April 9, 2013 10:14 PM   Subscribe

I'm applying for an apartment and the rental application asks for previous residence info along with their respective landlords' contact info. The trouble is I don't have their info at all.

I've long lost the copies of the leases and records of rent checks. I don't remember the name of the manager for one of the places, and have never met the management at another because the lease was arranged through one of my housemates, and I paid her my rent in her name.

All I have are the addresses of where I lived (two places) and my dates of residence.

However, I DO have my landlord's contact info for my current place, and I've lived here for more than three years, with no shenanigans: no late payments or notices, etc. My previous residences were only a year long each, give or take a month. I've rented my current place with a full-time income.

So my question is: will the screening company get suspicious at incomplete previous rental info? Or will they just look at my current three-year residency and my salary, and call it a day? Should I bother including my fuzzy college rentals?
posted by curagea to Home & Garden (12 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I would go ahead and list them without the contact info.
It will at least show that you have been renting for a while, and if they really want to try to find a manager they can do that on their dime.
posted by calgirl at 10:21 PM on April 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


List them with as much information as you have and (if there's room) a note about how that's all the information you have. Odds are that if they get in touch with anyone, they'll stop after your current landlord.
posted by Etrigan at 10:26 PM on April 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


You should be fine putting down just the addresses if you don't have the landlords full information. It's easy enough for the screening company to find the owners name and/or the property manager/management company.
posted by vespabelle at 10:36 PM on April 9, 2013


They will mostly care about the three-year residency, your income, and your credit score. Knowing the addresses of places before that will help match up facts on your credit score, but you probably will be fine not having contact details. I've been in this situation myself and have told the person taking my application the story, and have always been told that's pretty common.
posted by joan_holloway at 10:37 PM on April 9, 2013 [2 favorites]


I used to screen rental applications. If an applicant's last residence was 2 years or more, we didn't need to call the reference prior to that one. In my experience this was very common across rental companies in our area, although certainly it's not the case everywhere. Also, as a renter myself, I've found this to be true.

In your situation, I would put down as much info as you have and explain the situation, to show good faith. If the screeners really need that info, they will likely just ask you to look for it more closely, not deny you outright. Also, they may have a way to find out who the landlords are (I did quite a bit of investigations into dodgy apps. Also, I know certain addresses as being part of certain complexes)
posted by DrGirlfriend at 10:51 PM on April 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


I think to the person handling your application, you're just a part of the day's work quota and they're not extremely interested as long as it seems legit.

I would not worry about it, if they really must talk to every reference then they're used to people like you. I think documenting your ability to comfortably pay rent is a lot more important to them than the idiosyncracies of your previous landload relationships and whether or not you still owed your last apartment $50 in move-out fees or were three times late paying rent. It's a numbers game.
posted by evariste at 11:37 PM on April 9, 2013


By the way there's no "screening company" in my experience, it's probably just the receptionist or apartment manager making phone calls to your references.
posted by evariste at 11:41 PM on April 9, 2013


I've had to move a bunch and all I've done is put the phone number and address from the website. They can call and get the other info.
posted by empath at 2:09 AM on April 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


I wouldn't go nuts on this. Properties get sold, people change jobs, etc. Put what you have, it'll be fine.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 5:37 AM on April 10, 2013


Evariste, screening companies do exist because I do not have time to call references (it's also nice to have a buffer between the person who took the application and who approves or denies.)

You should look at the screening criteria you were given. That'll give you an idea how far back your landlord wants to look. I manage subsidized housing so our criteria in regards to rental history are probably very different that most landlords.
posted by vespabelle at 8:36 AM on April 10, 2013


If you've been at the same place for 3 years, I'd just put that down and be done with it.
posted by radioamy at 10:53 AM on April 10, 2013


Response by poster: Thanks for the answers, folks! One less thing to worry about in this crazy rental market :)
posted by curagea at 11:23 AM on April 10, 2013


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