I worked in the property management field for a LONG time...
These days, it is a renters market. Those that are in good shape financially are buying houses, so apartment complexes can no longer afford to be TOO picky. Rules will vary depending on the management company.
The areas reviewed generally will be income/employment, rental history, criminal history, and of course credit. Credit is probably the biggest gray area: if you your income is low (generally needs to be 3X the rent, though some may like to see 3.5X or 4X) or if you have a criminal history or if you have a bad rental history, you have problems.
Credit, on the other hand, will not always black list you. When looking for a place, before paying an application fee-be honest. An apartment complex should have an outline criteria for rental, otherwise they face an increased likelihood of fair housing claims. Find out what their policy is regarding credit/bankruptcy. If they say there is no way they can work with it, you don't want to waste the application fee to find that out. Most of the time, it eihter won't be an issue on its own, or it may require a higher deposit.
The last company I worked with, we could allow 2-3 'negatives' without requesting a higher deposit, as long as the applicant had positive rental history. (Someone with no rental history and a couple of negatives would have had to pay a month's rent as deposit, rather than $150.) We didn't get a full copy of the CR, just used a company that sent us the results. (How many of each status account: X # of 1's, X # of 2's, X # of 3's, etc.) I believe we counted everything higher than 2 as negative. Since we only got a summary of the # of accounts, we wouldn't have even known of any BK filing.
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Renting after Bankruptcy
Hi, can anyone help with this? I have done my homework on filing Chapter 7 but have one hesitation about filing: I am still renting. I am very concerned about being able to move, rent another place, or rent a house. I have no property of my own and I lost my job a year ago (employed currently!!). I don't want to file, but my income varies and I've lost the good interest rates on everything in the last year. I feel it would be smart in the bigger picture. I have 18 years of good credit, am 27K in and have suffered an R9, so credit is already damaged. Has anyone had to deal with landlords after BK? What did you do, or how did you sell your situation? Is this a stupid worry? Any thoughts would help me sleep better!
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