Renting with Bad Credit? Here’s How to Find Your Dream Apartment

Bad credit can make it difficult to find a suitable place to live, including buying the first condo in Montreal.

It’s not uncommon to feel overwhelmed and discouraged when searching for an apartment to rent in areas like Old Port Montreal or Plateau de Montreal with a low credit score. Many landlords and property managers use credit scores as a way to gauge an applicant’s financial stability and reliability.

How Bad Credit Affects Apartment Renting?

However, having imperfect or even no credit history doesn’t mean that you can’t find a suitable apartment to rent when moving to Montreal.

Finding an apartment with bad credit may be easier than you think, especially if you are looking for apartments in Old Port Montreal or Plateau de Montreal. It starts with being honest with the landlord about your financial situation. The more upfront you are, the more willing a potential landlord will be to have you as their tenant. You can also offer a higher first and last month deposit or find a co-signer with great credit to give more peace of mind to the landlord that your rent will be paid in full and in a timely manner.

In this post, Codollo, a Canadian aggretor of real estate listings, shows you how to successfully secure a rental and avoid any hassles in the process when moving to Montreal.

Knowing and checking your credit score is important because most landlords rely on this rating to decide whether or not you’re financially capable of renting from them, especially in popular areas like Old Port Montreal and Plateau de Montreal. They can use your credit score to determine your likelihood of paying your rent on time or to see how you’ve managed your finances in the past.

With a lower score, you could be perceived as a higher risk for landlords, who may ask for a co-signer or an additional security deposit. In some extreme cases, a landlord may even reject your rental application altogether. This is why you should know how your lending history can affect your chances of renting an apartment in Canada before starting the process, especially if you are planning on moving to Montreal.

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Having “bad credit” is not just an expression, but rather a real problem that can affect many transactions in your life – and finding a place to rent is definitely one of them when moving to Montreal. It’s Important to understand how bad credit can affect you and why you should start taking action to improve it.

Here are some of the most common things that negatively impact credit scores:

• Late or missed payments, including late rental payments.
• Collections and charge offs: Outstanding debts that you forgot to pay could end up in collections or charged off.
• High credit card utilization: A high credit utilization ratio – the amount of credit you use versus your available credit limit – could signal that you are not financially responsible.
• You’re a victim of identity theft: If someone steals your personal information, that person could open up credit cards or take out loans in your name. As a result, you could end up with charges and late payments on your credit report that you never even knew about.