That's probably his judgement that killed that credit application.
Don't forget; he's had two judgments against him: one from his attempt to sue Ariana Grande, and the other from his harassment trial.
Holy shit, how bad must your credit be to be denied a rental? I can understand how a ding on your credit can affect major borrowing like for a home mortgage (delinquencies, bankruptcy, etc), but even the worst borrower can get access to things like auto loans (think “Bad credit? No credit? No problem!” Commercials). How fucking bad must your score be to be denied renting an apartment due to your credit? Does anybody know more about this stuff?
PL: Am landlady.
Nicer places will often reject you for bad credit, especially in a hot rental market where they have a lot of qualified applicants. That said, a low credit score or specific delinquencies doesn't necessarily mean an automatic rejection. Some items on a credit report might be forgivable if the delinquencies are old enough, the individual has had no subsequent judgments or delinquencies, and they easily meet the income requirements. People do go through hard times, or make stupid mistakes when they're young, but if their credit report and current proof of income suggests they're now stable and able to be a reliable tenant, that can be taken into account. I've rented to such people with "bad" credit as a hangover from past misfortune or mistakes, and they've all been perfectly good tenants.
I think the real reason Russell got rejected was his background check. First of all, he's moved and changed jobs a lot over the last five years, and all of them were within the same geographical area. That raises a big red flag: if he's a good, stable employee and tenant, why so many moves?
Second, he's got a conviction for electronic harassment, for which he is still on probation. Is he going to pose a threat to other tenants in the building/complex? That's a serious point to consider.
He's also got a history of filing lawsuits; he's not yet 30, and how many has he filed? Renting to a guy who sees the legal system as a means to get his way exposes you to a lot of risk, should he decide he's not happy.
And of course, this is all assuming the agent never googled him, and was only going by information available through standard credit and background checks. He's got enough red flags to justify rejecting him, even before finding his thread here, or any of the other info readily available.
As for why the agent gave the grounds for rejection as something on his credit report, it was something solid and quantifiable, but also potentially much less fraught than citing his shiny, new criminal record and history of filing lawsuits.