No Credit History (from 1 of 3 tenants) - Should I Be Concerned?

[Jonathan Rivette]

Hi, 

I'm screening tenants for a single family home and the husband has no credit history but makes the bulk of the income. The wife has excellent credit (high 700s) and the adult son (also a contributing income earner) has excellent credit as well (mid 700s). 

Should I be concerned that the husband has no credit history (I'm wondering if this is indicative of past financial hardship/bankruptcy)? 

And as an overarching question - how should I apply my minimum standards for a household of multiple tenants? In this case their total household income (of the husband and adult son combined) does meet the requirement of being 3x the rent, but how should I apply requirements of good credit for this and other applications with multiple tenants in one application? 

[Jonathan Rivette]

@Nathan Gesner

@Kevin Sobilo

Thanks both for the reply - very helpful! Makes sense about just talking to them / asking them directly, and that's helpful to get more perspective on how you might approach reviewing credit. Much appreciated.