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If you are applying for a rental apartment, you will need various documents to present yourself as a reliable tenant. One aspect is your past rent payment history. In practice, people use different documents for this: the certificate of no rent arrears, the previous landlord’s certificate, and the proof of rent payment. The documents are by no means the same, but each is of great importance in practice. Preparing them can also present challenges. Here’s what you should know before you send off your application folder for your new apartment.
What are a certificate of no rent arrears, a previous landlord’s certificate and proof of rent payment?
Your former landlord issues a certificate of no rent arrears to confirm that you have no rent arrears. It is a confirmation that you have paid your rent reliably and on time.
The previous landlord’s certificate, on the other hand, contains information such as the name of the landlord or property management company, the name of the tenant, the address of the previous rental property and whether there are or were any rent arrears. In addition to the certificate of no rent arrears, the previous landlord’s certificate can also provide information about the tenancy.
The proof of rent payment is an important one-page document that proves the rent payments of the last six months and thus proves the tenant’s trustworthiness. The tenant can issue the proof of rent payment from their own account without consulting the landlord.
All three of these documents serve to give the new landlord an impression of your reliability as a tenant. Note that the law does not require tenants to submit proof of rent payment. Landlords cannot enforce it, and tenants do not have to disclose it.
Does the (previous) landlord have to issue a certificate of no rent arrears?
Know that landlords are not legally obliged to issue a certificate of no rent arrears. They can refuse to issue this certificate if they believe that it could affect their legal position vis-à-vis the previous tenant. Therefore, the new landlord also has no right to demand this certificate from the applicant.
Challenges and alternatives to the certificate of no rent arrears
Although the rent free certificate and the previous landlord’s certificate are useful documents, they can also present challenges. If the ex-landlord is unwilling to issue such a certificate, the tenant must consider alternative evidence.
You can quickly and easily create proof of rent payment online, independently of the landlord, using a compilation of bank statements or your own bank account.
However, some landlords can be skeptical and providing proof of rent payment can be difficult in certain cases, for example when moving out of a shared flat or when moving out of home for the first time. In such cases, there are various solutions, e.g. the inclusion of parents as co-tenants or guarantors in the rental agreement or the submission of proof of rent payment by the parents.
If proof of rent payment is not possible at all, prospective tenants can alternatively submit their bank statements or obtain a receipt for the payments from their old landlord..
Summary
Finally, ensure that proof of reliable rent payments in the past is included in every application folder. The proof of rent payment has an advantage over the certificate of no rent arrears and the previous landlord’s certificate in terms of the process of preparing it without a (previous) landlord. Using modern technology from online banking interface providers such as FinAPI, this can be simplified considerably.
The application folder from rentcard uses this technology to quickly and easily create a proof of rent payment by connecting the tenant’s bank account to the application folder via FinAPI. We always treat the tenant’s data securely by not storing it. In two minutes, we create not only the proof of rent payment but also a complete application folder.