Companies started checking future hires’ credit back in the 80s. I worked for a company that forced me to fire a woman two weeks after I hired her. They checked her credit after the fact. I wanted to resign in protest but couldn’t afford to.
As for walking away from a mortgage, a man’s gotta’ do what a man’s gotta’ do. And I wouldn’t feel guilty about it. As far as I’m concerned somebody got paid for those mortgages with the bail out money from taxpayers. So anything they get today is profit.
We had a situation like this come up last year. Guy interviewed well, was extended the position. HR dragged their feet on getting the Credit Check done, and it was really, really awful. This was on like a Wednesday, and the guy was slated to start on Monday, or something along those lines.
There was plenty of hand wringing and angst over what should be done. Finally, it was decided that we needed to go with the original plan, and move ahead with the hire.
Guy turned out to be a complete dud. Showed up when he felt like it. Had no logical reasoning ability (position was for a computer programmer, that's sort of a pre-requisite. :-) ).
The Credit Checks are done for a reason, IMHO. It may not be the be-all end-all, but it's a good start. Same with drug testing, if a person KNOWS that they're interviewing for a job, then they need to put the bong away for a bit. If they don't have the discipline to do something as benign as that, then they likely won't make for a good hire.