Yes — apartments do check credit. Nearly every property manager and most private landlords run a credit check before approving a lease, and the minimum score they look for usually falls between 620 and 670. The score is only the opening question, though. Landlords also look at your payment history, any collections or evictions, and whether your income is high enough to cover the rent. Federal law lets them pull your report once you’ve applied, and the same law gives you specific rights if the report costs you the apartment.
What Credit Score Apartments Want
There is no single number. Many apartments in competitive markets set their floor around 670. Smaller landlords and properties in less expensive areas often accept scores in the low 600s. Luxury buildings sometimes require 720 or higher. The score gives the leasing office a quick snapshot of risk, but it rarely decides the application on its own. It’s the starting point for a closer look at everything else on the report.
What Else the Credit Check Shows
Payment History and Collections
Late payments on credit cards or installment loans signal risk. What really catches a screener’s eye is debt that has gone to collections, especially unpaid balances owed to previous landlords or utility companies, because those suggest a pattern that could repeat. A single old medical collection carries far less weight than an active balance owed to an apartment complex.
Eviction Records
Standard credit reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion don’t always include evictions, so many landlords use tenant-specific screening platforms that pull from rental databases tracking prior evictions and landlord-tenant court filings. A formal eviction on your record is one of the hardest things to overcome on a rental application, even if you’ve since paid the underlying debt.
Rent-to-Income Ratio
Most property managers also check whether you can actually afford the unit. The industry guideline is that rent should not exceed roughly 30 percent of your gross monthly income. For an $1,800 apartment, that means the landlord wants to see at least $6,000 a month in gross earnings. You’ll typically need to back this up with recent pay stubs, tax returns, or an employment verification letter.
Does an Apartment Credit Check Hurt Your Score
It depends on how the screening company is set up. Many modern tenant screening platforms run a soft inquiry, which has no effect on your credit score. Some landlords and older services still run a hard inquiry, which can drop your score by a few points temporarily. If you’re applying to several apartments in a short period, ask each leasing office whether their check is a soft or hard pull before you authorize it. Scoring models generally group multiple hard inquiries of the same type within a 14- to 45-day window as a single inquiry, but avoiding unnecessary hard pulls is still the smarter move.
What You’ll Hand Over to Apply
A rental application asks for your full legal name, date of birth, current and previous addresses, and either a Social Security number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. An SSN is not the only option; screening companies can run reports using an ITIN, which matters for applicants with tax-filing history but no SSN. Check every digit before submitting, because a single transposed number can pull the wrong file or return no results.
You’ll also sign to authorize the credit check. Skip the signature and the application stops — no landlord will move forward without it. Expect a non-refundable application fee, usually around $50. A few states ban these fees outright, others cap the amount, and some require the fee to reflect the actual cost of the screening, so ask what the fee covers before you pay.
After you submit, a third-party screening company processes the data. Most applicants hear back within one to three business days, and some online platforms return results within hours.
If You’re Denied Because of Your Credit
The Adverse Action Notice
When a landlord denies your application based on a credit or screening report, federal law requires them to tell you. This is called an adverse action notice, and it applies whether the denial comes in writing, electronically, or verbally. The same rule kicks in when a landlord doesn’t flatly reject you but instead demands a co-signer, a larger deposit, or higher rent than other applicants because of what’s on your report.1Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Should I Do if My Rental Application Is Denied Because of a Tenant Screening Report
The notice must include the name, address, and phone number of the screening company; a statement that the screening company didn’t make the denial decision; your right to a free copy of the report within 60 days; and your right to dispute inaccurate information.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681m – Requirements on Users of Consumer Reports A landlord who denies you without providing this notice is violating federal law, which is worth knowing even if you don’t plan to sue, because it gives you leverage to push back.
Disputing Errors on the Report
Errors on tenant screening reports happen more often than people realize: a previous tenant’s eviction linked to your name, a paid-off debt still showing as active, or an account that isn’t yours. You can dispute an error directly with the reporting agency. Once the agency receives your dispute, it has 30 days to investigate and either correct or verify the information. Submitting additional supporting documents during that window gives the agency up to 15 extra days.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy If the item can’t be verified, the agency has to delete or correct it.4Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Long Does It Take to Repair an Error on a Credit Report
The practical move is to pull your own credit report before you start apartment hunting. Free reports from all three bureaus are available at AnnualCreditReport.com, and fixing an error before a landlord sees it is far easier than cleaning things up after a denial.
Options If Your Credit Is Weak
Guarantors and Co-Signers
If your score falls below the property’s threshold or you don’t have enough credit history to generate a score, a guarantor can bridge the gap. A guarantor signs a legally binding agreement to cover your rent if you stop paying. Landlords typically require a guarantor whose annual income is at least 80 times the monthly rent, which for a $1,500 apartment works out to $120,000 a year. That’s a steep bar, and it’s why paid guarantor services have become common in high-cost rental markets.
A Larger Security Deposit
Some landlords will approve weaker credit in exchange for a bigger deposit. State law controls how much they can charge. Caps run from one month’s rent to three months’ rent depending on where you live, and roughly a third of states set no statutory cap at all. If a deposit feels excessive, check your state’s limit before agreeing.
Alternative Documentation
Proof of strong finances can carry an application a credit file won’t. A bank statement showing several months of living expenses, a letter from your employer confirming stable income, or documentation of consistent payments to a previous landlord (even an informal arrangement) can all help. Some landlords also accept rent-reporting services that track payment history outside the traditional credit system. Smaller landlords usually give you more room to make this kind of case than corporate management companies do.
Limits on How Landlords Can Use Credit
Credit screening doesn’t sit outside fair housing law. The Fair Housing Act prohibits screening criteria that have an unjustified discriminatory effect on protected classes, even if the policy looks neutral. In 2024, HUD issued guidance noting that credit scores were designed to predict loan defaults, not tenant reliability, and that blanket reliance on them poses a risk of discriminatory impact based on race and other protected characteristics. Landlords can still consider credit, but rigid cutoffs with no flexibility may be legally vulnerable when a less restrictive approach would serve the same purpose.
The Fair Housing Act also requires reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities.5U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Joint Statement of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Justice – Reasonable Accommodations Under the Fair Housing Act If your poor credit history is directly connected to a disability, you can ask the landlord to adjust its screening criteria as an accommodation. The landlord may deny the request only if granting it would impose an undue financial or administrative burden.