Renting an apt while still in Chapter 13

[newlife13]

Well, my landlord is selling the house we live in. Ugh. I thought I'd make it through the end of the Chapter 13 before having to get a new apt.

So, the apt I want is through a leasing company. (Of course.) The application asks:
"Have you ever been evicted, declared bankruptcy or had a judgment? Y/N"

Obviously, I need to say "Y".

I added a little sentence afterwards that reads:
2017 Chapter 13 reorganization after a lengthy and expensive divorce.

I also wrote a letter that I was going to append to my application:

I am writing this letter as an addendum to my rental application for [place]. My children attend high school at [place] and we are active in the [town] community. I love the building and can’t wait to live there!

In early 2017, after a lengthy and expensive divorce, I entered into a Chapter 13 plan to reorganize and pay my outstanding debt. I have made the first 37 of 60 payments and expect to complete the plan satisfactorily in January 2022.

When you pull my credit report, you will see that my middle FICO^® Score is 685 and I have a very low debt-to-income ratio. My income of $95,000/year should meet the income requirements for the rental of any unit in the [place]. Additionally, I have a second job, not listed on the rental application, that pays from $2,800-$3,000/year.

I have been renting since 2011 and have made every rental payment on-time. I have lived in my current home since April 2013. I am a neat, quiet tenant and would be happy to provide landlord references.

Do you think this is overkill? Has anyone successfully rented from a big leasing company while still in their C13?

[justbroke]

I was approved for every single complex that I applied to while in an Active Chapter 13. I currently live in a one of them which is a managed 60-acre apartment complex with over 400 units and townhomes. I was approved in less than 5 minutes. They are mostly looking at evictions.

I would not elaborate unless they decline the application. They are looking more at stability and income (no evictions and steady job) than what a Chapter 13 will ever tell them.

[newlife13]

Awesome.

Do you think I should leave the little blurb on the application, though? Since it asks about eviction, bk or judgment. I don't want them to think I have an eviction.

Edited to add: I've had the same job since 2014.

[justbroke]

If there's a spot to explain, just put "Chapter 13 bankruptcy due to divorce. Credit recovered." Be succinct. In fact, the 680+ score with stable income will be the winner.

[sophieanne]

Good luck to you...I agree with justbroke that a succinct explanation and a great credit score will hopefully get you the approval for the apartment.

[Justme79]

newlife13 - Wow! A 685 credit score and your halfway through your payments? I was told I do t qualify for a chapter 7, and reading your post gives me hope! Do you have any open revolving credit or did your scores go up from just being out of debt? I was assuming my score would be in the dumps until are I am discharged? I live in Florida and was told by the lawyers assistant that I can only get a secured credit card until discharge. Maybe with being out of debt, the secured card and my student loan I’ll be out of the 500’s 😩

Also, I stopped my parttime job at Target, would me making more money increase my monthly payment? Has it increased yours?

I really hope you’re approved for your apartment.

[Leemo1980]

I called the lease company prior to completing the application . I figured why waste both of our time if it was a deal breaker. The lady was very nice and said there shouldn't be a problem and I got it with no issues.

[sophieanne]

Leemo1980 - Congratulations...i'm glad that worked out

[justbroke]

I called the lease company prior to completing the application . I figured why waste both of our time if it was a deal breaker. The lady was very nice and said there shouldn't be a problem and I got it with no issues.

As a former real estate investor and landlord, I use a system from CoreLogic called MyRental. I run an "Applicant Screening" from them. It is very comprehensive and I always run a "full" report checks criminal history as well

In any event, it scores the application and gives me a letter grade and a recommendation. If it comes back with "potential" candidate to best candidate to rent, then I will rent. Now, I'm not supposed to run it against myself, but I did... while I was in bankruptcy. My recommendation came back in the midrange and just short of the "best" candidate by only 30-50 points. The reports also show the credit score, criminal history and evictions. Evictions are the worse and when most leasing agents see an eviction, it's an instant no.

So, if they're using such a system to screen, which most medium and larger management companies would use, then they just go by the recommendation in the system. They do not look at the individual application unless it comes back with a C or less and an "other than" recommended status. I found this to be true because I was approved several times while in an active Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

[newlife13]

Hey, I realized I never updated this post. I was approved to rent the apt, but due to the BK, I had to pay first, last and full month security deposit. Yikes! That was a lot. (over $7K!). For good-credit people, they only asked for $1000 security deposit plus first month's rent.

Anyway, I love the new place. Life is good.

[shipo]

Interesting; since I've been designated a permanent work from home employee a few weeks ago, I've come to the conclusion I need a larger place. My wife and I are both working from home in our little apartment (rented after we'd separated back in 2013), and now with us getting back together and what with COVID-19, we are sharing our moderately sized kitchen table as our work space; that poor table has two laptops, three larger HD monitors, two keyboards, a scanner, a networking switch, and a few other items of computer related clutter on it. We had been hoping to hold out until 2022 to buy a nice townhouse, but we may need to rent a larger place until then.

[newlife13]

Interesting; since I've been designated a permanent work from home employee a few weeks ago, I've come to the conclusion I need a larger place. My wife and I are both working from home in our little apartment (rented after we'd separated back in 2013), and now with us getting back together and what with COVID-19, we are sharing our moderately sized kitchen table as our work space; that poor table has two laptops, three larger HD monitors, two keyboards, a scanner, a networking switch, and a few other items of computer related clutter on it. We had been hoping to hold out until 2022 to buy a nice townhouse, but we may need to rent a larger place until then.

Yeah, I moved into this great place... and now my office is in my bedroom because I didn't anticipate WFH this long. It's just me and my son & daughter, but it feel pretty crowded!

I live in MA 'burbs, so a nice apt is pretty expensive here. Not sure where you are in NH, but I assume you'll find a much more affordable place.

[shipo]

I live in MA 'burbs, so a nice apt is pretty expensive here. Not sure where you are in NH, but I assume you'll find a much more affordable place.

LOL, no, there is no way I'll be able to find a place this inexpensive. This place is called a "Caretaker Apartment", it is on a large family owned and operated horse farm in the Manchester area, and my rent is partially offset by taking care of a dozen horses several times per week. I figure renting a smallish 3-bedroom apartment will cost me well over double what I pay now.

The good news is my Chapter-13 ended earlier this year and while I can afford a larger place, I'd rather not; building the war chest for our down payment on a new townhouse and all that...

[justbroke]

Interesting; since I've been designated a permanent work from home employee a few weeks ago, I've come to the conclusion I need a larger place... we are sharing our moderately sized kitchen table as our work space; that poor table has two laptops, three larger HD monitors, two keyboards, a scanner, a networking switch, and a few other items of computer related clutter on it. We had been hoping to hold out until 2022 to buy a nice townhouse, but we may need to rent a larger place until then.

I know exactly what you mean but fortunately I (we) just moved into a 2,400 square foot (4-bedroom) home. We were in a 3-bedroom 1,300 square foot apartment and it worked for us, but felt cramped with 3 adult men.

I must tell you that working at the kitchen table, for hours, in regular dining chairs is going to wreak havoc on your body.There are 2 of us that work from home so we splurged and bought new electronic standing desks and new chairs. We did spend a lot on our desks. Stepson splurged even more on a 70" bamboo desk and a overpriced 27" monitor (if you ask me) -- but he's a newly graduated and I/T software engineer. I have two standing desks, one for personal and one for work. I also splurged on a Dell Dual 24" IPS Monitor (and MDA20 monitor arm) package. My back, front, eyes, neck... every part of my body thanks me.

In the past I have worked 60%/40% from home/work and I'm used to making sure I have a good setup and internet speeds. In fact, I picked this home not only that it is in a nice very quiet and new suburb, but also because it has fiber to the home and really inexpensive internet ($39/month for 500Mbps).

[shipo]

Wow, we live in a semi-rural area; I pay something like $150 per month for less than half that bandwidth (180 down, 6 up), and even that bandwidth is a HUGE improvement over what it was when I moved here (in the neighborhood of 25 down and 1 up).

At least the IDE I uses these days is all cloud based so the traffic on my internet connection is but a fraction of what it used to be when I was working with n-Tier systems where the business logic was on your local workstation but the data was out across the network connection in various data centers around the world.

As for screens, I'm about to move from three to six (a two high/three wide matrix) so I can keep my work and the various collaborative tools we use visible at all times. Yeah, by the time we move from here we'll be busting at the seams.