# How bad does a past eviction look to prospective landlords?

**URL:** <https://community.avail.com/t/how-bad-does-a-past-eviction-look-to-prospective-landlords/633>\
**Category:** Landlord Questions\
**Created:** [October 18, 2019, 4:51pm UTC](https://community.avail.com/t/how-bad-does-a-past-eviction-look-to-prospective-landlords/633 "2019-10-18T16:51:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![KyleighLL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@KyleighLL](https://community.avail.com/u/KyleighLL)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 4:51pm UTC](https://community.avail.com/t/how-bad-does-a-past-eviction-look-to-prospective-landlords/633/1 "2019-10-18T16:51:58Z")

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How bad does a past eviction look to prospective landlords?

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**Author:** ![MiddleVillageRentals](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8c91f0/32.png) [@MiddleVillageRentals](https://community.avail.com/u/MiddleVillageRentals)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 10:29am UTC](https://community.avail.com/t/how-bad-does-a-past-eviction-look-to-prospective-landlords/633/2 "2019-10-24T10:29:12Z")

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It is very important to do a thorough background check to make sure the applicant has no prior evictions, bankruptcy, judgements, etc. It is very difficult to evict a non-paying tenant so it is better to do a good background check prior to renting your apartment. It is also good to check for criminal records.

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**Author:** ![Judith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d9b06d/32.png) [@Judith](https://community.avail.com/u/Judith)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 6:18pm UTC](https://community.avail.com/t/how-bad-does-a-past-eviction-look-to-prospective-landlords/633/3 "2019-10-25T18:18:47Z")

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Definitely.

I always tell my friends who are rental owners that you have to do the hard work on the front end or you will be paying for it on the backend. And especially in the case of evictions where those can turn ugly (ie. if a tenant decides to inflict damage on the property).

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**Author:** ![community.manager](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.avail.com/community.manager/32/1080_2.png) [@community.manager](https://community.avail.com/u/community.manager)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 7:25pm UTC](https://community.avail.com/t/how-bad-does-a-past-eviction-look-to-prospective-landlords/633/4 "2019-10-25T19:25:56Z")

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To be honest, it doesn’t look great. That is one of the dangers of people wanting to over-litigate things rather than up their own communication management skills outside of the courts. Sometimes, there really is no other option and for all parties in that instance, it is very unfortunate. Life happens (and that’s on both ends – landlords and tenants); at the end of the day, we’re all human and none of us have a crystal ball. That said, tenant screening is a great way to better mitigate your risks of having to evict later on.

It doesn’t look great on an application; but if you have other positive payment history factors that you can clearly point to/identify, then it is possible your prospective landlords may be a bit more understanding.

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**Author:** ![Gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@Gigi](https://community.avail.com/u/Gigi)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 7:32pm UTC](https://community.avail.com/t/how-bad-does-a-past-eviction-look-to-prospective-landlords/633/5 "2019-10-25T19:32:38Z")

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I know I personally wouldn’t rent to anyone with evictions. That’s just me though.