Home/apartment rental after BK

[AnnieG]

Hello all-
We will be filing for Chapter 7 in a few days. We are exempting our house. However, I may need to move for my job within the next few months. How much of a problem would it be to rent a house or apartment immediately following a Ch7 discharge?

[HRx]

This depends on who you rent from. Some property management companies don't lease to applicants who have BK less than 5 years old. Others will still allow you to lease, but will simply require you to make a larger deposit. Your best bet is to call the leasing office and ask them this question first. So that you don't waste your time, and have your credit report unnecessisarily pulled.

Good Luck!

[pookaloody]

This (not being able to rent an apartment) was one of my biggest fears about declaring bankruptcy. I just filed in early April, have had my 341 and am waiting for discharge so I was very anxious about having to move June 1st with everything still up in the air. The rental market where we live is VERY competitive (we had a couple of applications where the managment company said right out that they wouldn't rent to anyone with a credit score below 660) which only added to the stress.

BUT...I'm happy to say that we just moved into a great apartment this weekend.

What worked for me was 1) looking at small buildings, esp owner occupied and 2) being upfront with the landlord. We included a letter with our application for this apartment, explaining about the bankruptcy and reiterating why we would be good tenants. He told us later that because we were straighforward about it that showed that we were trying to turn over a new leaf so he was willing to give us a chance (we did, however, have to pay a higher deposit).

Hope that helps...