Worked in property management a couple years back and still know people in the business. The only reason most apartments will pull your credit at renewal is if you make changes to your lease such as add or remove a roommate or switch apartment. Request for refund of a conditional security deposit paid at move in is also another reason (you had not so great credit at initial lease and wanted to see if you could get back some or all of your security deposit at new lease if credit improved). Pulling credit report is unheard of at renewal according to my contacts, even for some of the reasons listed above as they will often look at rental history after initial lease. Did you sign an agreement for them to pull before renewal. Read your initial lease and see what it says? If this is a practice of your landlord/management company I would make a stink for a change. Annual pull on your credit is unnecessary.