Can I At Least Get An Apartment

[arlington]

Here's the situation briefly. About to file in a couple of hours. Husband could receive a job offer in another state. Would have to sell the house (or if it doesn't his company will buy it). I'd rather settle for an apartment or rent a house if we decide to move. Will we at least qualify for an apartment if we file Chapter 13? Took the online counseling thing last night and found out our scores were 439 and 440...that totally sucks but hopefully things will get better in the next hundred years.

[rrockinggramma]

well it depends on the complex you rent from. I have found that a lot of the complexes simply increase your deposit if your credit is bad and that most look for whether or not you owe other apartment complexes money. In my current situation, as I was already in my chapter 13, I had to get a letter from my attorney stating that I could not add this apartment complex to my current chapter 13 as it was passed the bar date for claims etc. But I have had no trouble finding a nice place to live, depite my 2 bk's (chapter 7 and current chapter 13) But it depends on the complex. Some can be sticklers and others are ok with it as long as you have no apartment lease give backs on your credit report.

[HeatherB]

why not

There are a lot of bigger managed apartment complexes that will not allow a bankruptcy on a credit report. (some in last 3 years or some in 5 or 7) Make sure when you go apartment hunting that you are up front about your bankruptcy. That way you don't end up paying for paperwork when you don't stand a chance of getting an apartment with them.

I filed a chapter 13 in 2004 then converted to a chapter 7 in august of this year. Most places that I looked at (through apartment.com) I called first and found out that they will not consider you if you have a bankruptcy. I'm not sure if they look at a chapter 13 different than a chapter 7, though. I was told by a couple of apartments that declined me immediately that if I ran out of places to look, to try to find some individual renting property rather than managed buildings. They said that these people are more willing to rent to you based on their impressions of you than a credit score.

However, I did find a place that was managed (very nice place) that said they accept some bankruptcies, but not all. I don't remember what they said they checked by. Anyways, we passed the credit check and only have to pay an extra high deposit. ($500 instead of the $150).

[jennordhavn]

We had trouble finding a rental

We did have trouble finding a rental with our poor credit scores (lots of old collections). I have like 485 credit score and my fiance has about 580, and we had a heck of time finding someone to rent to us. I think it depends a lot on where you live too. We live in California and a lot of the nicer places are real sticklers about credit. In the past, I have always just left a higher deposit (usually double) to rent. This was by far the hardest time we've ever had finding a place. We just kept looking on Craigslist.org and finally found a private owner renting a condo. I told him up front that our credit wasn't good, but that we had good rental history. He ended up not even running our credit. Good luck, I know how hard and frustrating it can be!

[BassBoy]

.....I was told by a couple of apartments that declined me immediately that if I ran out of places to look, to try to find some individual renting property rather than managed buildings. They said that these people are more willing to rent to you based on their impressions of you than a credit score.

I agree. My family and I found it much easier to work with private owners.

Try this route and see what happens. Just remember to be upfront and honest about your situation.