It is completely normal for a landlord or property manager to ask you for your bank account number when you apply for rent. You will have to share your basic contact information — your name, address, phone number, and email — when you fill out a rental application so that the landlord or property manager knows who you are and how to contact you.
Landlords and property managers for apartments ask for bank statements in order to prove the tenant’s income. They want to ensure that a prospective tenant will be able to consistently pay rent on time. Bank statements are easy and reputable tools for verifying that a tenant has the necessary income.
Once you find the perfect place to live, you will have to fill out the rental application and come prepared with the various documents that a landlord requires to make this official, including proof of income.
Proof of income for a condo is an important measure for landlords, as it shows them the prospective tenant has a stable income and will be able to pay their monthly rent. Then, landlords can look at wages and adjusted gross income to confirm the potential tenant is able to afford rent. Landlords may request information like paychecks or bank account statements to show they are able to afford rent.
Landlords Derive Security from Bank Statements
By asking for bank details, a landlord can check that you have bank accounts and that your income, fewer expenses, is sufficient to cover the payments that you are required to make. By asking for your bank details, Landlords can confirm you have an account and that your monthly income, minus your expenses, is enough to meet the rent. You can use your bank statements as evidence of income since they show the landlord each deposit, withdrawal, and transaction made by the tenant.
The easiest way a landlord could get these is by asking the applicant to send him or her a PDF of his or her recent statements, which should show an itemized transaction history, including deposits and withdrawals. Asking the applicant for their two most recent monthly bank statements is a good way to get supporting documentation that can be used along with the paychecks to prove a tenant’s income. You probably get a pay stub each pay period, but you could also ask the employer for a copy of a pay stub from past periods to verify income.
P&L statements will show you an applicant’s business income, but there is no real way to check this documentation, except by checking against bank statements or tax returns. You probably will not need to give the application itself your actual bank account and routing numbers in order to qualify, but instead, you need to show a bank or tax filing document that shows you are making money. If you are a full-time student, unemployed, or if a large portion of your income comes from a fluctuating source, landlords are more likely to require 2 to 3 of your recent bank statements.
Several Sources for Financial Information Are Available
There are a few sources that a landlord will obtain your bank account numbers, like your pay-checks, so this is not really anything new to the landlord, so you could say that sending the landlord your statements is completely safe. You may be slightly uncomfortable showing your bank statements to a potential landlord, but there are ways you can do this without showing them all your personal information.
It is not like potential tenants have to show thousands of dollars in their bank accounts, but the landlord will want to see you have some money in the bank account and are capable of paying rent.
In cases where you are falling short of an apartments income requirements, like you are making less than three times your rent, or you are trying to rent a unit with no work, a landlord will want to see on your bank statements whether you have enough savings to ensure that you will be able to pay your rent, and they are likely going to be paying attention to your spending habits. Landlords are allowed to request anything that might demonstrate your ability to pay your rent each month, so long as it is a legitimate piece of information.
The Rights of a Prospective Landlord
Your prospective landlord has the right to request any financial information or documents they believe are necessary in order to determine if you can afford to pay the rent each month. If a landlord finds anything suspicious about your criminal history or credit, they can reject your rental application.
The landlord will use a fee that they collect from you when you apply to rent the house to do a criminal background check and a credit report. Landlords and property managers typically conduct a background check on tenants and will ask for your past three years of rental history, including your previous rental address, the reasons for moving, and the names and telephone numbers of your previous landlords.
Ask the landlord or property manager whether or not the application fee is refundable, or whether it may be applied toward your first month’s rent once your application is accepted. If the landlord or property manager requests your bank account information before viewing an apartment or receiving your application, watch for potential scams, and never provide confidential information unless you have verified the business as legit.
The Common Decency of Landlords
Landlords should ask potential tenants for evidence of income to prove that they are able to pay the rent, as well as determine whether they are engaging in scams by using fake documents. Property owners typically ask prospective tenants for proof of income in at least two different forms in order to verify an applicant’s income and to guard against fraud and deception.
An employment verification letter for renting apartments or units is a valid technique used to prove to the landlord that the applicant has a stable income, as well as, that income will stay stable throughout the duration of the rental. By seeing a tenants evidence of income, a landlord can calculate the rent-to-income ratio to determine whether or not an applicant will fit well into their properties.
Typically, a renter will want bank statements unless they are able to show that they have a source of income that is both reliable and verifiable. Hopefully, on your written requirements checklist, you will have this in place: You will always need copies of bank statements if there is just 1 source of income in a household (including if you have one person), or those specific applicants may be accusing you of discrimination.