This strikes me as odd: is it cultural? In my experience, people choose to live with friends. If they can't do that, they ask their friends for recommendations. And if they can't do that, they try very hard to live alone, in a closet if necessary, until they can make some friends. The ways somebody can be a good or bad apartment-mate go much further than anything that I imagine can be discovered by a third party maki…
When I was in university, I got some awful roomates in my dorm - and now that I can pick my roomates, I'd love to be able to check if these people have caused problems in the past.