Yes and no. The following explains how a lease could link your roommate’s credit report and your credit report.
First off, when you apply to rent a property, the landlord or property manager will usually pull both your credit reports. The landlord or property is prescreening his perspective tenants to make sure they have a steady history of paying their bills, and paying them on time. Pulling your roommate’s credit report and your credit report will not link both credit reports.
Secondly, as long as you pay your rent on time, the lease will never be reported to any credit bureau. For example, a lease will not show up on your credit report like a credit card or auto loan would. You will not increase your credit score by paying your rent on time. So making timely payments on the lease that your roommate and you signed will not link your credit reports. Even late payments will not show up on your credit report.
Furthermore, if your roommate and you do not pay the rent and are evicted, the landlord or property manager will file a judgment with the state. The judgment will show up on both of your credit reports even when the judgment is satisfied. This particular event will link both credit reports; however, other items on your roommate’s credit report will not affect you or vice versa. For example, if you both are evicted from a rental property and a judgment is filed, and your roommate has a credit card that he does not pay on time, your roommate’s late credit card payments will not affect your credit score.
So to recap the blog: if you pay, you stay, and the credit report is left untouched. If don’t pay, you go, and a judgment is filed which links your credit reports to that one particular item.
