Has anyone ever heard of landlords charging you for getting a background check done before renting to you?

Question

I've never heard of this before, but they want to charge my girlfriend & I $100, so that they can get a background check done on the both of us before letting us rent from them. Is this a common thing? And do they usually charge that much?!!!!

Answer 1

$100 seems really high. I heard $30-$50 max
I know that friends who owned apts building, routinely pocketed the money and didn't do the check. They decided who they wanted to rent to visually..
to avoid fees I suggest you go to craigslist.com and post like I did, I wanted to rent a house in x-neighborhood and I had dogs. The key is to said positive things about yourselves like: I am medical professional (I am), your age and your employment status (worked at Bank of America for 5 years etc) positive things like that
I avoided a background check fee and found what I was looking for from a local independent landlord with his mom's house to lease.

Answer 2

An application fee to cover a credit check and background check is pretty typical. Not all landlords run a background check. It probably depends on what type of problems they have had with residents in the past or you could be trying to move into a high end place.
When I was a manager for a retail place, we ran background checks on promising applicants and it cost us about $10/person.
Are you dealing with a private landlord with very few tenants? My experience has been that the private landlords have higher standards and are pickier than the corporate owned apartment complexes.

Answer 3

Get a No Cost Background Check Scan at https://bitly.im/aNKKZ

Its a sensible way to start. The site allows you to do a no cost scan simply to find out if any sort of data is in existence. A smaller analysis is done without cost. To get a detailed report its a modest payment.

You may not realize how many good reasons there are to try and find out more about the people around you. After all, whether you're talking about new friends, employees, doctors, caretakers for elderly family members, or even significant others, you, as a citizen, have a right to know whether the people you surround yourself with are who they say they are. This goes double in any situation that involves your children, which not only includes teachers and babysitters, but also scout masters, little league coaches and others. Bottom line, if you want to find out more about someone, you should perform a background check.

Answer 4

I used to do some bookkeeping work for a property management company. They would do a background/credit check on applicants. The applicant had to pay an application fee up front to cover the cost, which is very common. $100 is pretty high. I haven't rented in several years, but the application fees back then ran around $25-$35.

Answer 5

YEah some places charge that but they usually say it's an application fee or something. I know in Ontario, Canada, where I live, it's illegal for them to charge you for them to do a credit/background check, BUT they CAN charge an application for rental fee that they have to credit back to you plus interest either when you move in, or move out... My fiance had to rent a place in New Mexico for work a year ago, and they charged him a $200 application fee, non refundable, so I don't know about in the US what they laws are regarding this... try contacting someone at the city offices where you live to ask, they might be able to tell you, or refer you to someone who knows more...

Answer 6

Yep Its legal .Why should a landlord pay to have back ground check done and the person not be fit to rent to and the normal cost is 50.00 per person ie 100 for both you and your girlfriend This is what a detective service /background checks cost if done professionally

Answer 7

It's common to charge for the credit check, but $100 seems high. In California, owners and managers are allowed to charge actual costs plus an administrative fee, not to exceed $35.88 per applicant.

Answer 8

I have had to pay for a background check before moving into an apartment and when my husband and I managed apartments for my father we required a background check when the people applied for one of our units. Its usually about $100, and usually NON refundable. Its not a big deal really and pretty common.

Answer 9

I don't know where you live, but in Franklin county (Columbus, Ohio/State Capital) it costs five cents per page to obtain a background check not including the cost to park (say $5.00). So in order for your background check to cost 100.00 the report would have to be 2,000 pages long. If your rap sheet was that long you wouldn't need an apartment, you'd probably already have a place to live.

Answer 10

What! You should have said, no thanks but can I get your business card while we think it through and we will get back.
Then report that landlord. The landlord pays a fee for the background check to the agency to protect themselves from bad renters. But as far as I know they cover that fee and I don't think it's $100. Maybe in your state such law applies, but when in doubt do find out.
Kate