Need info from those who were renting apt. and filed in Florida

[sophia]

Can someone explain what exactly happens when I list my lease for my apartment. My lawyer says we have to reaffirm it and I am nervous they will not want to. We owe them nothing and have lived here over 5 years. I wish they did not even have to know but he says here in Florida it is the way it is.

[cityish]

Oh god... I did not know that you had to list the lease for your apt.!

I live in Florida too and also rent. I am hoping to file for Chapter 7 at some point... I would love to hear some answers to this question too.

[hippyguy]

hey there i'm in Florida also, I am also renting. I had to attach copies of my lease to the paper work and was given the option of reaffirming or surrendering my lease. I'm not in an apartment but I'm not living in a one owner property either. I contacted my PM and told him what was going on. He actually said "Good For You Guys", my wife and I. Fact is; if you pay your rent on time no private owner or leasing company wants empty units during an economic disaster in a real estate market that has imploded. If you have a five year history of decent payments, they will want your money. The eviction process in Florida takes a long time, even if things did get messy-you would be given ample notice to find save and get out. I would recommend renting privatley in the future from what I understand from my PM, landloards like the zero debt to income ratio. If you have been somewhere for as long as you have maybe you should look at some other places just for fun. Rent has come way down in the past year with the economy the way it is. You may be able to get more for your money somewhere else.

[cityish]

Thanks for the info, Hippyguy. I am wondering though --- if you reaffirm the lease would that make the landlord likely to raise your rent because you would be perceived as a risk?


I love the apt. community where I live and would like to stay here many more years. But it's a big corporate conglomerate and I'm just a number, blah blah blah. I wonder if they got BK paperwork on me at corporate headquarters, if they would flag my file and use that as an excuse to jack up my rent.


This is all hypothetical for me anyway because right now I can't even file Ch. 7, because I had one that was discharged in fall 2002. The soonest I could even legally re-file would be the end of next year.

[freshstartfl]

I rent an apartment in Florida. I didn't list the apartment complex, although I did give a copy of my lease to the lawyer. I don't think the apartment complex has any idea I filed BK, and I'm already more than 1/2way thru the 60 days after the 341 meeting. My lawyer said nothing about the apartment complex having to be notified.

[cityish]

Interesting.

I guess it all depends on how the lawyer interprets the rules?

Different lawyers do things differently I guess....

[jeb]

The eviction process in Florida takes a long time,

The FORECLOSURE process takes a long time most everywhere but the eviction process in Florida?

Depending upon how your lease is structured, don't count on in. - jb

[cityish]

FYI --I used to be a landlord of a small property and at that time my understanding of the Florida statutes was that eviction could be accomplished in a couple of weeks or less... Eviction for non-payment of a rental unit I mean, vs. foreclosure.

[justbroke]

As a landlord, and a Chapter 13 debtor... evicition is super easy in Florida and super fast. Can be done in 10-14 days!

In any event, the term you're using for the lease is to "reject" or "assume". You don't re-affirm leases in Bankruptcy, as they are contracts.

For the original poster, and others, listing your lease in your petition and indicating on your Statement of Intentions that you are assuming (keeping) the lease, should not cause you any trouble at all... so long as you are not behind and are paid up.

Even if you aren't paid up, actually are behind in rent, you can cure this in the Bankruptcy, but it needs to be done very very quickly. The whole part of curing a lease deficiency is beyond the scope of this discussion, but it can be done.

In all cases that I've seen, this reject or assume is only prevalent in Chapter 7 cases and tends to be ignored in Chapter 13 cases. In a Chapter 7, you need to explicitly assume the lease, otherwise it is automatically rejected, and you'd be able to walk away. That's why, if you intend to stay in the leased property, you need to immediately take action.

Landlords must also immediately take action when a case files so as to preserve their rights as well. Especially if the person was already in the eviction process.