Renting after Bankruptcy

[Abbie64]

it good that you got it sorted and being honest with the owner is great as it shows that you got nothing to hide and be a more trusted tennant.

[Jimmy17]

I hope my story helps someone out. All this just culminated yesterday so..

I had been at my current apartment for almost two years when the complex just started getting too noisy and dirty - mind you, this isn't a bad neighborhood, just poor management.

Anyway, having just filled for Ch.7 at the end of last year and having it discharged a few months ago, I was sweating bullets trying to figure out how I was going to find another place.

First, I began checking my credit scores and found that they weren't too bad. To my surprise, they ranged between 596 and 639. Still, I knew the bankruptcy was going to be a tough hurdle.

After finding a nice apartment, I had a talk with the mgr. I told them about everything and how I used to have great credit and pretty much the whole reason for my bk. They told me that nowadays, a lot of ppl are filing and it shouldn't be a big deal but, it's really up to the owner.

I drafted up a nice letter to be faxed to the owner explaining my situation and that I'd be more than willing to pay a higher deposit or whatever he wanted to work out.

Yesterday, I went in to turn in my app and for them to run my credit...

I move in on the first!!

That said, be honest, be upfront and it is in your best interest to deal with a private owner as well as someone running the office who seems understanding of things. It is not impossible.

[notavictim]

Similar note - if you've been renting without issue for years is there a way your landlord can report this to the credit agency? As a good thing?

[mass2010]

That is VERY positive to hear! thank you for sharing. What state are you in? I was afraid to file ch 7 because of this reason. I have small children and will need to rent in CA but am afraid of not getting a rental now. I have great credit now but won't once I file....thank you.

I had your same worries, we just filed chapter 7 and are currently waiting for our bk to discharge. THEN we get the horrible news that our apartments are being converted to Condos. We do not have a lease as my husband is a Courtesy Officer working for the apartments manager. *we get free rent for this service* SO we will have to move as soon as it is sold and our thirty day notice is given.

I started looking ASAP. I was up front with the managements of every place I called. Only one complex turned us away and one Realitor. I actually signed our lease for our new apartment last week. We are still waiting for discharge too! I called out attorney, they wrote a letter to the management of the new complex that we would not include them in the BK. The manager asked for a hirerdeposit but not an insane amount, only the same as one months rent. It was actually easier to find someone to sign us now than before our BK.

Good luck and I say file now get your life and credit back so you can go on and learn from your mistakes in the past

[sisterfunkhaus]

I e-mailed a very nice, corporately owned complex near my home and they have no issues with renting to discharged BK as long as your income is 3x the rent, and you did not include a landlord or mortgage in BK. I guess in Dallas, they are a bit more lax about BK. If anyone lives in Dallas or even Texas and needs the name of the company, PM me. It's a MAJOR management company with apartments everywhere.

[sisterfunkhaus]

Deleated

[cali girl]

I don't know about SoCal, but in my experience, no property management companies in NorCal will look at anyone with bankruptcy. It is in bold print on the application. It's a bummer, but oftentimes it's better to work with a private owner.

Well, I guess they both have their perks. With property management, you at least know you're dealing with a professional and won't have to worry about the owner being foreclosed and you having no notice except a sheriff's note on the door. Or someone scamming you for a deposit, never to be seen again!

On the other hand, dealing with private owners offers a lot of flexibility. Many of them don't worry too much about credit scores, and a lot of times you can work out arrangements for deposits and negotiate rent amounts.

At any rate, good luck to all of you who are house hunting. We are looking for a rental as well, and I see a TON of property management companies out there. We have a deposit ready to go ($2K) but no one to give it to!

[PaKettle]

I am wondering about this too.
Right now we have no plans to move, but if we do, are we going to have a hard time renting an apt.?
I had AAA credit right up until 6 months before bankruptcy and have 10 years history of never paying rent late, never missed a car payment nor student loan payment through bankruptcy.
But will an apt. management co. in S. Calif. rent to me?

[sisterfunkhaus]

I have a question. We live in Texas. After our BK is discharged, we want to get an apartment and we make 4 x (net) the amount of the rent. We can pay the entire term of the lease upfront before moving in. Does anyone think that a complex would be more likely to rent to us this way since rent would be paid for the entire lease before we even move in?????? We lived in our house for 8 years with 2 late pays and no repo. We also still have our car and student loans in good standing after the discharge. We have been renting from my parents for the past year (part of their house.) I have a lease, receipts, and canceled checks as proof that we paid our rent and on time. Does anyone think it would count as positive rental history??

I really want to get out of here.

Opinions please.

[stopthebleeding]

yeah goodluck renting in so cal. I have reason to be worried about this one.

[jh1975]

New service for renting after bankruptcy

I filed bankruptcy in 2005 and had a fairly hard time finding an apartment. My guess is it depends a lot on how tight the rental market is where you live. Anyway, I found a house to rent and the landlord was willing to rent to me once I explained exactly why I got into financial trouble (job loss) and why it won't happen again.
I found that it's hard to get the large apartment complexes to rent to you. The people most likely to rent to you after bankruptcy are individuals or very small properties. Unfortunately those are hard to find. Sometimes you can find them in the classifieds, sometimes they don't advertise at all.

So, I decided to put up a website with a listing service exclusively for landlords who will rent to people after bankruptcy. Since some might have hesitations, listings are free, and their's a small charge if they succeed (which I don't think they'll mind paying, it's way less than other site's listing fees)
The site's launched, but I don't have any listings yet (hey, it's only been 2 days). Anyway, if you know of any reasonable landlords who have properties to list
Check out the site, let me know what you think:
Rent After Bankruptcy

[BassBoy]

Glad to hear your great news T.O.D. If you've read through this thread, then you know that my wife and I have had the same luck. We found an absolutely beautiful house (side-by-side) to rent (we surrendered our home in Ch.7). We have 3-bedrooms, 1-1/2 baths and a full basement. IMO, the place is nicer than the house we had. It's also bigger.

The owner didn't have a problem with our BK. Actually, I think he was either totally clueless about BK (which I highly doubt), or he just didn't give a rats a$$. He said as long as we feel comfortable being able to pay the rent, then we could have the place.

We have 2 children, so there was no way we wanted to be all cramped up in an apartment. Don't get me wrong here, the newer apartments are really nice and really spacious.........but for a family of 4, not suitable. Our place has enough room for all of us and we have a good size yard for our kids to play in. We have to maintain the yard, but I enjoy doing that anyways. The full basement is great because I can continue to play my drums and bass guitar (the other tenants can't hear them...........good sound proofing), my kids have a play area, we have an area with furniture and there is room for storage. We struck gold with this place.

We were also lucky enough to find a property owner that has done an impeccable job maintaining the house. Now, the property is only 9 or 10 years old and it didn't need too much, but there is new carpeting and flooring throughout (stain resistant and plush), new hot water tank, new A/C unit, new faucets and counter tops, freshly painted and all of the wood trim is stained. The place is beautiful. We've had a few visitors since we've moved in (on 03/04/06) and they were quite surprised at the place. I guess most people, and myself included, have a predetermined vision of what a rental property can look like (some people just don't care about what they own). Anyways, my point is that it's nice to have a place that someone has taken care of.

Best of luck to you T.O.D. and please keep us posted on how everything is turning out for you.

[tired_of_debt]

renting after BK

I was just discharged on March 6 and will be moving back to my Indiana from Illinois in June of this year. I was lucky, I guess. I found a gentleman and his wife whose sole occupation is that of property management. They own several units in the area where I intend to move. I filled out the application, got approved and received the lease from him in no time. I was up front with him about my credit, told him I had a Chapter 7 and was working on cleaning up my credit and my act. He knows it all and is willing to take the chance. I have been late a couple of times with my rent in the past couple of years, but given the disastrous power bills and a variety of other disasters, I think I have done fairly well in that regard. Unfortunately, my other bills suffered as a result. I moved to Illinois to be with my significant other and that fell apart last year. I was left with a bunch of bills to pay that made things impossible. I had been paying 2 car payments totaling 900+ dollars from November of 2004 until July of 2005 in addition to 300-dollar (December shot up to 475) per month AVERAGE power bills and all of it including an electrical storm that cost me 500 dollars in out of pocket repairs, diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma and related medical bills, a washer that stopped working and a water heater that needed repairs put me seriously "in hock." While I am not proud of having filed bankruptcy, I am happy to be getting out from under the 530-dollar van payment (my personal vehicle is paid for after 5 years at 393 a month) and am starting fresh not only from the debt perspective but in a new place nearer family and friends. I searched for a long time before I found someone whom I felt comfortable with discussing my credit situation. As they say, bad things DO happen to good people. I just intend to make sure from this point on that the bad things that happen are not the result of MY actions.

Good luck.

[FilingOnMyOwn]

Well here in New York (brooklyn) It seems so hard to find an apt. Number one they want 900.00 for a studio. As I say NY is for rich people, Im a single mother and even though I make close to 30k thats still nothing. Most apts are with buiding management or realtors. I went to see this studio which I loved its 700.00 rent stablized and decent area. The company wants 1400 which is 1st months rent and security ok. But the agent wants 15% of the annual rent which is like 1258.00, So I would be paying close to 3000.00 just to get in the apt then the guy says oh you need good credit. Im so furious because Im stuck and that gets me very depressed. I work , and still nothing. I guess It isnt going to get much easier being that I filed chapter 7. What can I say?

Yeah new york sucks period unless you are made of money. I wouldn't even consider living in the city if I made anything under 100k, and I've never even made much over 30k in my life living other places. I grew up detroit and was having the same problems with money, couldn't have full coverage car insurance for less than $400 a month, etc. At least NYC has alot of public transport, but it can still take you hours to get where you need to go. Which is another problem, theres only so many hours in a day. So I moved to florida. I pay less for 6 months of auto insurance here than I've paid up north for one month. If car breaks down, its 75 cents to take the bus. 30 cents for the L-train downtown. I don't smoke anymore, but you can buy Marlboros for 2.50. A 6 pack of brew for $3. The only thing here you will pay as much as anywhere else is gas. Groceries tend to run half the price with the exception of meat and dairy products. Its like making a lil less money but only spending half as much. Moving might be a good idea for you.

[BassBoy]

Deal is done

To follow up on my recent posts.........WE ARE MOVING INTO OUR NEW PLACE MARCH 1ST!!!!! We were able to work with the owner of the house I've been raving about in this thread. Oh BTW, water, sewer and garbage pick-up are included in the rent (always was included.....didn't ask the guy at first). The owner is okay with our BK (actually, he doesn't check credit reports) and as long as we feel we can afford it (which is no problem), then the place was ours. We sign our lease agreement on Tuesday (01/31/2006).