I don’t know how it’s in other countries, but Schufa is a monopolist and feels like simply paying a tax. You have no choice.
Interestingly, I didn’t need a credit check to rent in Belgium and Denmark.
Interestingly, I didn’t need a credit check to rent in Belgium and Denmark.
It looks more like the Mafia. You pay a protection tax but this does not guaranty anything.
That said, I agree with you. It needs to go.
But it sounds like you were dealing with an individual landlord, that's kinda rare. They might be more willing to use common sense and not ask useless documents from someone who just arrived in the country.
On the other hand, big property management companies will typically not bother with an application that doesn't tick all the boxes.
On the other hand, most landlords and property management companies absolutely hate applications from people who they know are going to leave after a fixed term contract.
Further, as of GDPR, you are entitled to all information from the agencies for free. Prior, you could obtain it for a small fee (£2 by post if my memory serves me correctly).
As far as I'm concerned, SCHUFA is basically a scam I am compelled to fall for whenever I want to rent somewhere.
Currently in Germany, yeah... we paid the Schufa tax twice over because we're two people renting together, and the GDPR data export thingy conveniently omits the credit score they've computed about you...
Was considering whether one can make use of the 14-day return thing, but they've thought of that: it uses a sealed envelope that's hard to open without leaving evidence (under a guise of having a nice opener mechanism).
I have never known anyone to demand the paid version.
It took nearly 10 for my previous landlord to face the justice.
She was completely outrageous and shameless in her crimes - blatantly in violation of registration for HMC, violation of planning permissions, squalor, disrepair, the houses had rats and literal hole in the wall for rain and wind. She would harass gullible and naive students, illegally evict them, etc. and all her crimes were on written record.
And she was doing it with impunity for years. For all that, her punishment is a slap on the wrist - https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/news/article/266/rogue_landlor...