How to Fix a Bad Rental History

Renting a home or apartment with a bad rental history can be a frustrating task. You might be denied renting a living space for reasons that are seemingly beyond your control. Fortunately, you can rectify your rental and credit history and rent the apartment or home you desire.

Instructions

1

Obtain a credit report. If you were delinquent with your payments at your previous place of residence, or if you broke the lease by damaging the residence without proper payment, chances are good that your landlord reported you. This will appear on your credit and rental histories.

2

Find any errors that might be present on your rental history. The landlord may have misunderstood the situation, and it's possible that certain factors were overlooked when the landlord reported you in the first place. You can dispute these factors with a credit reporting agency and have them expunged from your record if information was incorrect.

3

Pay off any outstanding debts you owe to previous landlords. This is one possible way of getting the negative marks on your rental history reduced or expunged entirely. Some landlords can be rather temperamental, and may exaggerate when reporting a tenant to a credit or rental agency. Speak calmly with your previous landlord and resolve the situation.

4

Explain your situation thoroughly to your new potential landlord. If some of the negative information included in your rental history is indeed accurate, explain exactly why you were delinquent and what you'll do to prevent these mistakes from occurring again. If the landlord is reasonable, he might be willing to look past your previous mistakes.

5

Obtain written information indicating that you are in fact a good, reliable tenant. This could include a positive letter of recommendation from a landlord you got along with, as well as a stable of references. These references should be people you trust who will give their honest opinion to a prospective landlord. Family members and peers don't always make the best references, so find some upstanding community members who will vouch for you.