Every now and then, you might need to get ahold of your rental history. Whether you’re applying for a new apartment, disputing an error that came up on a background check, or simply curious about the places you’ve lived in the past, knowing your rental history can help you avoid surprises.
Unless you wrote somewhere about the places you’ve lived in the past, which not many do, you might need to dig through multiple resources to locate your rental history. In this article, we will point you to the right places so you can have a full picture of your rental history. If you’re asking how to check your own rental history, read to the end to get your answers.
How to Check My Own Rental History Online?
Just as in any aspect of life, you can take advantage of what the internet offers to check your own rental history. Here’s what you can do online to locate the previous addresses you’ve lived in.
Check Credit Reports
Credit reports are an easy way to have your rental history since some rental information appears on these documents. However, this tends to only work for checking one’s own rental history if the landlord reports to the credit bureaus. Given that it might not lead to the information you’re looking for, we recommend requesting a free credit report from AnnualCreditReport to check accounts related to rental properties.
Run a People Search on Yourself
A quick way to check your own rental history is to use a people search engine that looks for this information through public databases and web pages. In case you didn’t know, an address is typically a public record, so using a people search engine that brings up previous addresses or specifically looks for rental history can help with this.
As for which people search engine to use, we recommend USPeopleSearch’s people finder tool. It is free to use, just like your annual credit report, so you won’t need to pay anything to check your own rental history. Simply enter your full name, city, and state to discover your past rental addresses.
Check Bank Statements
If you need your rental history as proof that you’re a responsible tenant, reviewing your bank statements to find recurring rental payments can be an option. Although this won’t pinpoint exactly the places you’ve lived, it can be a great alternative to getting your entire rental history. In fact, a prospective landlord might even prefer this, as they won’t need to contact previous landlords to verify whether you were paying on time.
How to Check My Own Rental History In Person
There are also in-person methods that can help you get your own rental history if checking your rental history online isn’t an option for you. Although these in-person methods may require more effort compared to the above, they can be just as effective.
Contact the Property Management Company
If you’ve rented multiple properties from the same property management company, requesting your rental history is a great way to fill in the blanks. They can provide you with a document that confirms your rental addresses, dates, payments, and any other information they have on file. These all have the details that most prospective landlords, financial institutions, and other interested organizations may need.
Visit Local Courts
For those who had legal disputes with past landlords or had eviction records, visiting local courts is one way to get rental history. With the documents available in civil records under your name, you can have your rental history. This is one of the best ways to check rental history if you must prove that an eviction happened long ago and no longer reflects your current status.
Check Your Documents
Go through your old rental agreements, leases, rent receipts, invoices from moving companies, emails, letters, and any other documents related to rent to build a timeline of when and where you lived. With all these available to you, it might turn out that you already have everything you need to check your own rental history.
Checking My Own Rental History: A New Solution
Providing proof of your rental history is important for various reasons, whether you are applying for a new apartment or a mortgage.
Fortunately, there are many ways to go about this, from running a civil records check on yourself through a people search engine like FreePeopleSearch to checking your own records. In case you need to check your own rental history in the future, keep a record of your rental history with supporting documents to make future applications faster and smoother.
