Whether fee required - Landlord Forum thread 354943

Whether fee required by Stephen (Washington (WA)) on November 6, 2017 @13:56

Is it required to receive a fee from the applicant before you can run their credit check? Not as far as I can see on-line. You do need their authorization to run the check (OP had that). If your application made some statement that running the credit check was contingent upon them paying the fee, then maybe there is a problem. But it doesn't sound like such a statement was on the application.

Have any of you gone to make a purchase at a store and had them offer to sign you up for their credit card? Usually they offer some discount on the current purchase. If you say yes they run an instant credit check. No fee! If there was a requirement for money to change hands I'm sure those stores would require it.

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Re: Whether fee required by Anonymous on November 6, 2017 @14:46	[ Reply ]

So if you require a security deposit and the applicant doesn't pay it, do you still sign the lease and turn over your rental to them? No, you stop going forward with signing the lease. The landlord should not have proceeded to run a credit report if a payment was required. The fact that she decided to pay for it and run the credit report was a bad decision on her part. It left her open to a FCRA complaint, if investigated, would find that the landlord violated her own policy and 'willfully' violated the law. But that said, she needs to hold on to the signed application just in case any problem pops up. The applicant has two years to file a complaint and that signed application should be enough present a defense. Maybe nothing will come of it, but still one never knows? She did state "He signed the rental application where mention the credit report fee". So the applicant can claim that without the fee, the landlord would/should not run the report.