Landlord’s worst nightmare is approving someone with an apartment lease break on their credit history.  Nowadays, landlords are very cautious about approving someone who has a poor credit history or a prior judgement.  In fact, you can have a great yearly income of $100K and have a poor credit with a score of 500 and a landlord will be able to deny you an approval. Many apartment complexes are not going to work with you if they find out from your credit report that you owe back rent to your previous landlord.  They will want you to pay it off completely and wait until credit bureau agencies update it on your record, which could take up to a month. Assuming that your income is stable, some landlords may allow you to move in with a broken lease or eviction, but they will require a much larger security deposit and perhaps even ask for another month’s rent, as part of their security. Therefore, it’s extremely difficult to find a property owner who will approve you with a broken lease or eviction on your credit report.  The best rule of thumb for avoiding an apartment lease break is to always try and find someone else to take over your apartment lease.