How Can Landlords Report Late Rent into Credit Reports?

Tenant rental payments can function as an extra source of income for landlords or property managers. Unfortunately, not all tenants make their lease payments on time. When this happens, you may wish add these late payments to the renter’s credit report. This is absolutely possible. But first, you must take certain steps to get start reporting late rent and least payments.

Report Late Rent

Each of the three major consumer credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) maintains its own consumer credit report database. It’s not free for creditors to report credit information to these credit bureaus. Before you can start, though, you must first become a customer of the credit agency’s services. Otherwise, you can’t report late rent data to the bureau otherwise. If you’re not a member, you have no way to include your tenants’ payment history in the credit bureaus databases. Here’s why.

Each credit agency operates independently. Therefore, to report overdue rent payments, a landlord would have to contact each agency directly. Next, he’d have to subscribe to each agency’s services. To do this, a landlord must meet specific requirements, which includes subscriber fees. Additionally, they’d need to purchase and install equipment and software to report in the proper digital format. Subscriber requirements will vary by agency.

Datalinx exists to help you get over these hurdles. We can make it possible for you to report to the credit bureaus with minimal costs.

Federal Law Compliance

Lease information is not among the “normal” credit information the agencies receive. It falls into a category called alternative credit information. These include invoices that a consumer pays (like utilities or rent) that aren’t usually credit-based. Optional credit data isn’t widely reported to the credit bureaus. In fact, federal law doesn’t require that you report late rent or other renter data to a credit bureau.

Federal law does govern credit reporting, though. Therefore, it’s very important that you report only accurate information. It’s also imperative to respond to consumer disputes about the information you’ve reported. If you violate a customer’s rights under the law, you could face fines or other civil penalties.

Again, Datalinx exists to help you navigate through this red tape, and with minimal cost. If you’re ready to get started, contact us today and report your own tenants’ payment information.