The short answer
An eviction is a court case. A broken lease is money you owe a landlord, with no court involved. Many communities go easier on a broken lease, and paying off the balance opens up even more.
What that means for you
An eviction is a public court case. A broken lease is a private matter: you broke a contract with your landlord.
Since 2017, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion have kept civil judgments, evictions included, off credit reports. An eviction hurts your score only when the unpaid balance goes to collections. But the public court record can still show up on tenant screening reports.
A lot of renters have one without the other. Timing is the reason. We’ve seen plenty of tenants avoid an eviction by turning in their keys before the landlord ever filed in court.
They walk away with a broken lease and a clean court record.
Some communities will consider a broken lease but not an eviction. To them, a court judgment is the bigger risk.
Here's what matters when a property sizes up that risk:
- Public vs. Private: Evictions go into civil court records. Broken leases never touch the courts, though they can still show up in rental history databases and collections.
- Credit Impact: A broken lease only hurts your regular credit score if the balance gets sent to a collection agency.
- How Long It Lasts: A collection account from a broken lease can stay on your credit report for up to seven years. That's the Fair Credit Reporting Act limit.
- Risk Scoring: Screening platforms run a separate eviction search, and plenty of communities treat any court record as high risk.
A tenant who leaves on their own looks far less risky to a property manager than one who makes them pay for a court fight. So we point you to communities whose written criteria may fit your record.
How Texas communities handle it
Texas property managers usually count a court eviction much more heavily than a broken lease. Their screening reports make the two easy to tell apart.
We see renters lose $50 to $75 on every denied application.
Texas property managers use a mix of screening companies. The ones we run into most are TransUnion SmartMove, RealPage LeasingDesk and AppFolio.
Each one pulls up different information, and each management company reads it its own way.
RealPage’s AI Screening tool, for example, draws on more than 30 million past lease outcomes. AppFolio pairs its background checks with fraud detection software.
Here's how the big screening platforms look at your history:
| Screening Platform | How It Sees an Eviction | How It Sees a Broken Lease |
|---|---|---|
| RealPage AI Screening | Searches civil court records nationwide for judgments. | Can pick up unpaid balances that past landlords reported. |
| AppFolio | Runs a background check that can include court filings. | Picks up collection accounts from past management companies. |
| TransUnion SmartMove | Runs an eviction search next to its credit based ResidentScore. | Shows a lower score if the broken lease debt went to collections. |
For more on these background checks, see our eviction page. Once you know how these platforms work, you can stop paying fees at properties that screen you out automatically.
What to do next
Criteria change, so we keep checking what each property uses today.
Send us the dates, any balance owed, and whether a court was involved. We'll usually get back to you the same day (weekend messages most likely get a Monday reply), and Texas communities that may consider your situation follow within 24 to 48 weekday hours.
You don't pay us anything. Communities cover our referral fee from their advertising budgets.
Here's how it works:
- Your Story: Tell us about your broken lease or eviction history.
- Matching: We compare your situation with the screening criteria we track for Texas communities.
- Your list: We send communities whose criteria may fit your history. Approval is always the property's call.
Applying at random burns fees, and some screening companies pull your credit as a hard inquiry, which can dip your score.
Related reading: eviction · broken lease · filed vs. granted vs. dismissed evictions explained