Most rental property owners know they’re supposed to run a credit check. Fewer know what to do with the results once they have one.
If you’ve ever stared at a screening report wondering whether a 662 is a yes or a no, or approved someone with a 715 who turned into your worst tenant, you’re not alone. This is the kind of thing that looks simple until you’re standing in it. We’ll walk through exactly what shows up in a credit report, where the score itself falls short, and how to make decisions that actually protect your rental income. And if you want the full picture first, understanding your tenant screening process is worth reading before you go any further.
In This Guide
- The Credit Report vs. The Credit Score
- What Specific Items Actually Show Up
- What the Score Ranges Mean in Practice
- Income Matters as Much as the Score
- The Mistakes That Cost Owners Real Money
- Fair Housing and Written Criteria
- Hard Inquiries as a Hidden Signal
- When to Approve, Condition, or Deny
- Getting the FCRA Part Right
The Credit Report vs. The Credit Score
These are not the same thing. A lot of owners treat them like they are.
The score is a single number. The report is everything behind it. We’re talking about payment history, open accounts, credit utilization, hard inquiries, collections, judgments, and public records like bankruptcies. The score is a summary. The report is the story.
And honestly? The story matters more.
A 680 score with five years of clean rental history, no collections, and steady employment tells a very different story than a 680 score with three medical collections, two hard inquiries from last week, and a balance sitting at 90% utilization. Same number. Very different tenants.
What Specific Items Actually Show Up
Here’s what a full screening report typically surfaces. Late payments show up once they hit 30 or more days past due. Anything under that threshold usually doesn’t appear as a derogatory mark at all. Most negative items, including late payments, collections, and charge-offs, negative items stay on the report for 7 years under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy sticks around for 10 years and is one of the more serious red flags you’ll encounter.
Eviction records also appear, though they pull from a separate data source than credit. This distinction matters.
We use AppFolio to run screening at Envy, and it pulls TransUnion credit data, criminal history, and eviction history all in a single report. That’s worth emphasizing because a lot of self-managing owners piece together a free credit tool with a separate background check and end up with gaps. Courts that aren’t covered by basic reports mean missed eviction records. We had a prospective tenant come through with a 700-plus credit score and a recent eviction from two years prior. Because the owner was only looking at the score, they nearly approved it. The AppFolio report caught the eviction history before the lease was ever signed.
That’s not a small thing.
What the Score Ranges Mean in Practice
In Salt Lake City’s rental market, a 620 is about the floor most landlords use. Below that, many screen reports trigger automatic denial. The 680 to 720 range is where most qualified applicants land, and above 720 is considered strong.
But here’s the part worth pushing back on. Setting your hard floor at 700 is costing some owners good tenants. In this market, plenty of working-class and younger renters carry scores in the 620 to 660 range because of student loans or thin credit files, not because they’re irresponsible with money. A 640-score applicant with five years of on-time rental history, stable employment, and income three times the rent is often a safer placement than a 710-score applicant who’s changed jobs twice in the last year and can’t produce a rental reference.
The score is one data point. Use it that way.
Income Matters as Much as the Score
A credit score tells you how someone has handled debt in the past. It tells you almost nothing about whether they can afford your unit right now.
The standard income-to-rent ratio in this market runs 2.5x to 3x gross monthly income. On an $1,800 rental, that means you’re looking for somewhere between $4,500 and $5,400 a month in verifiable gross income. This requirement stands regardless of how good the credit score looks.
We had an owner working through a decision on a self-employed applicant with a 665 credit score. The score was middling. But the applicant had three years of consistent bank statements showing over $6,000 a month in income. Rather than an outright denial, we recommended requiring a double security deposit as a condition of approval. That’s a legal option in Utah and a practical middle-ground when the income is clearly there but the score carries some uncertainty.
The Mistakes That Cost Owners Real Money
We work with owners who’ve been burned by screening shortcuts, and it usually plays out one of two ways.
The first is treating the score as the whole picture. One owner came to us after self-managing a single-family home in the Salt Lake Valley. They approved a tenant with a 610 score because the person seemed responsible in person. That tenant was 60 or more days late on rent twice in the first six months. The owner lost roughly $3,600 in unpaid rent before filing for eviction.
The second mistake is the opposite: setting criteria so tight that good applicants get screened out while the owner’s unit sits vacant. A vacant unit in this market costs you somewhere in the range of $1,700 to $2,000 a month in lost rent, plus the turnover costs on top of it.
Finding the balance is the job.
“A Chapter 7 bankruptcy sticks around for 10 years and is one of the more serious red flags you’ll encounter.”
Fair Housing and Written Criteria
Utah is an at-will rental state, which gives landlords a lot of flexibility in setting screening standards. But under both federal law and the Utah Fair Housing Act, those standards have to be applied consistently to every applicant.
This is not a technicality. An owner who approves a 640-score applicant but denies a 645-score applicant from a protected class with no documented reason is exposed to a Fair Housing complaint. First-offense fines start around $16,000 under federal HUD guidelines. That number gets people’s attention.
Write down your criteria before you start accepting applications. Apply them the same way every time. Document your decisions. This is one of those areas where the paperwork actually matters.
By the way, if you’re newer to owning rental property in Salt Lake City, it’s worth knowing that SLC landlord registration requirements and your salt lake city rental business license obligations are separate from screening rules but equally worth getting right from the start.
Hard Inquiries as a Hidden Signal
This one rarely gets talked about. Tanya, who handles escalated lease and tenant issues on our team, has flagged situations where an approved applicant had a clean-looking score but six or more hard inquiries showing up on the report. That pattern suggests someone applying to dozens of properties at once, often because they’re being declined repeatedly or are financially stretched and scrambling for a yes.
A raw credit score won’t show you that. The report will.
When to Approve, Condition, or Deny
There’s no universal answer, but there’s a framework. Strong credit plus strong income plus solid rental history is an approval. Poor credit plus thin income plus no rental references is a denial. The gray area in the middle is where most decisions actually live.
For that gray area, conditional approval with an added security deposit is a real option in Utah. So is requiring a co-signer, or requesting additional income documentation. The worst move is making a gut call without documentation to back it up.
One long-term owner put it well in a review: “These folks know what they are doing and are very kind and efficient in every way. I have dealt with other property managers and there is no comparison.”
That kind of confidence comes from having a consistent process, not from winging it application by application.
Getting the FCRA Part Right
One more thing that trips up self-managing owners: you cannot legally pull a credit report without written authorization from the applicant first. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires it. Skipping that step opens you up to statutory damages of up to $1,000 per violation plus attorney fees.
The screening report typically costs $50 to $75 per applicant in Utah and is usually passed to the applicant as part of the application fee. That cost is worth it. One bad placement can run $3,500 to $6,000 or more when you add up lost rent, legal fees, and turnover costs.
Salt Lake County eviction filings have gone up post-pandemic, and the eviction process here takes a minimum of 30 to 45 days with legal costs often running $1,500 to $3,500. Screening upfront is cheaper than fixing a bad decision six months in.
If tenant screening feels like a lot to track on your own, we’re open to a conversation.
FAQ
What does a credit check show a landlord?
A full credit report shows payment history, open accounts and balances, collections, public records like bankruptcies, hard inquiries, and in many cases eviction history when pulled through an integrated screening platform. The credit score is just a summary number pulled from all of that underlying data.
What credit score do you need to rent an apartment in Salt Lake City?
Most landlords in Salt Lake City use 620 as a minimum cutoff, though many prefer applicants in the 680 to 720 range. A score alone won’t get you approved though. Income, rental history, and employment stability all factor into the decision alongside the number.
Can a landlord deny a tenant for a low credit score in Utah?
Yes. Utah is an at-will rental state, so landlords have broad discretion to set screening criteria including minimum credit scores. The requirement is that those criteria get applied consistently to every applicant, regardless of protected class status, to stay compliant with the Utah Fair Housing Act.
How long do negative items stay on a credit report?
Most negative items, including late payments, collections, and charge-offs, stay on a credit report for 7 years under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy remains on the report for 10 years.
Is a 700 credit score enough to rent a house?
Generally yes, but a 700 score doesn’t guarantee approval on its own. A landlord will also check income against the rent amount, look at employment history, and review the full report for items like recent evictions or a pattern of late payments that the score alone won’t flag.
Does a landlord need permission to run a credit check?
Yes. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, landlords must get written authorization from an applicant before pulling their credit report. Running one without consent exposes the landlord to potential legal liability, including statutory damages per violation.