SafeRent Solutions on your credit report: what this inquiry means

Who SafeRent Solutions is

SafeRent Solutions, LLC provides resident screening and an applicant risk score to property managers and landlords. The score is SafeRent's own and is separate from your FICO or VantageScore. A low SafeRent score and a good credit score can sit side by side, because they're built from different data.

Is it a hard or soft inquiry?

If SafeRent's screening includes a bureau credit pull, the bureau logs it with whatever label the order carries, and rental inquiries can be coded hard or soft. FICO's shopping rule doesn't group rental inquiries, so several hard rental pulls can each count. The screening record itself sits in SafeRent's file.

Why it showed up on your report

You applied for an apartment at a property that screens through SafeRent and paid an application fee or signed a screening consent.

Why it can show more than once

Applying at several properties that all use SafeRent can leave several entries, one per application.

How to check that you authorized it

1. Match the date to an apartment application or a lease renewal.
2. Ask the leasing office which screening company it used and whether the credit check was hard or soft.
3. Request your SafeRent file to see which properties received it.

How to reach SafeRent Solutions

Contact SafeRent through its consumer support page, by phone or by mail for one free copy of your file every 12 months. SafeRent freezes your file on request. If a landlord denies you based on its report, the adverse action notice opens a separate free copy within 60 days.

Guides that go deeper

• What each apartment application costs your creditLandlord credit checks can be hard or soft, and FICO doesn't group rental inquiries the way it groups loan shopping. Ask these questions before you pay.
• What landlords see when they check your creditMany landlords buy a tenant screening report that goes beyond your credit score. What it contains, who sells it, and how deposits and guarantors work.
• How to read and use an adverse action noticeA denial letter must name the bureau, shows the score used if there was one, and opens a 60-day window for a free report. How to read and use each part.
• Hard vs. soft inquiries: which credit checks count against youA hard inquiry comes from a credit application and can trim your score. A soft one never does. A table of the common checks, gray zones included.