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Can a landlord do a personal credit check when renting to an LLC?

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Lysol

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? New Jersey.

I am in the process of moving my business to a new office. For background check purposes the landlord asked for our EIN, banking info, and business credit references. Totally standard, no problem there. A few hours later his secretary calls back and asks for me to fax over a letter giving permission to check the credit references that I just provided. Again, standard, no problem. However, a little while later she called me and asked for my personal SSN. I wasn't exactly sure why but I just assumed it was just for them to have on record in case of a severe violation of the lease or damage to their property (I know, giving out my SSN without an explaination, great idea). About 20 minutes later, I recieved another call from the secretary, this time asking for my driver's license number because she was in the middle of running a credit check and they required it. Now, my question is, can they do this? The LLC applied for the lease, not me personally, so shouldn't the descision to lease be based on the credit and reputation of the LLC (of which I am not the only member) and not my own personal credit (which is less than stellar, btw). Also, since the letter I faxed them specifically gave them permission to run a background / credit check based on references supplied for the LLC, are they legally allowed to run a credit check on me personally as the president of the company?
 


Litigation!

Senior Member
Lysol said:
What is the name of your state? New Jersey.

I am in the process of moving my business to a new office. For background check purposes the landlord asked for our EIN, banking info, and business credit references. Totally standard, no problem there. A few hours later his secretary calls back and asks for me to fax over a letter giving permission to check the credit references that I just provided. Again, standard, no problem. However, a little while later she called me and asked for my personal SSN. I wasn't exactly sure why but I just assumed it was just for them to have on record in case of a severe violation of the lease or damage to their property (I know, giving out my SSN without an explaination, great idea). About 20 minutes later, I recieved another call from the secretary, this time asking for my driver's license number because she was in the middle of running a credit check and they required it. Now, my question is, can they do this? The LLC applied for the lease, not me personally, so shouldn't the descision to lease be based on the credit and reputation of the LLC (of which I am not the only member) and not my own personal credit (which is less than stellar, btw). Also, since the letter I faxed them specifically gave them permission to run a background / credit check based on references supplied for the LLC, are they legally allowed to run a credit check on me personally as the president of the company?

My response:

Many creditors, like landlords, don't want to hassle with suing a company. They want a "real" human being. Therefore, look at your lease agreement. Did you sign as a "Personal Guarantor" of the lease payments?

IAAL
 

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