It it possible for me to prepay rent?

[swampwiz]

I am homeless, living here and there. I figure that I could prepay rent somewhere for a while to get me through this ordeal. Is that possible?

[frogger]

If you're homeless now, living here and there, you obviously don't have enough money and/or pride to find a place to live now. So..... now you're going to prepay rent to get you thru this ordeal?

Is it possible for you to do that? Only you know that answer.

[backtoschool]

Most landlords do not want the liability of prepaid rent. If you prepay rent and then trash their place, landlords have a huge legal hassle on their hands removing you.

Most landlords want a regular lease with perhaps a larger security deposit if you are a credit risk.

[music12]

i don't understand what you mean.

[swampwiz]

I don't have a home, and currently at the moment, I am at my sister's, which is out of state. I had been living at a short term lease hotel (InTown Suites.) I was just wondering how someone who doesn't own their home actually lives through BK. I guess I can just rent a place month to month, and use part of the proceeds of my personal homestead exemption to live after the BK is finished for rent from then on?

If I mention to the landlord that I will be going through bankruptcy but can pay a large deposit now, could a trustee force the landlord to give that up? Or would it basically be exempt?

[backtoschool]

I don't have a home, and currently at the moment, I am at my sister's, which is out of state. I had been living at a short term lease hotel (InTown Suites.) I was just wondering how someone who doesn't own their home actually lives through BK. I guess I can just rent a place month to month, and use part of the proceeds of my personal homestead exemption to live after the BK is finished for rent from then on?

People rent all the time while in bankruptcy. They sign leases and affirm them or they rent month to month. I don't understand why you want to prepay the lease.

[music12]

i don't know what you mean by "proceeds" from your homestead exemption. you don't get money when you file for bk. it's just that if you already have this money, it would be exempt from creditors.

people rent through bk when they have an income. if they don't have an income, they live with friends/family.

[LimpDisc]

You could stay at a hotel\motel that rents by the week\month. I'm sure they would be more than happy to take 3-6 months rent in advance.

[music12]

in some states landlords are not allowed to take too much rent in advance.

[bellee]

in some states landlords are not allowed to take too much rent in advance.

not true.

[music12]

not true.

i wish you would do some research before you post such a thing.

[backtoschool]

not true.

Yes it is true. It has to do with eviction laws and liability etc.

Let's say that you prepay your rent for a year and then open up a meth lab in the house. Having prepaid the rent for a year makes it more complicated to remove you from the house. Some states do not want to deal with this type of problem, and don't want to be subject to a civil suit for the prepaid rent, so they don't allow prepaid rent over one month or so.

[music12]

also, some states limit how much a landlord can get ahead of time, otherwise at some point all landlords will require a year's rent in advance and people would have to get into deep debt just to get an apt.

[leena]

I am a Property Manager, and we do not by company policy except a prepayment of rent unless it is in the form of individual checks to be deposited on a monthly basis (so in reality we are not taking prepayment). Many issues with prepayment, from the hassle for the accounting department to as backtoschool mentioned, the bigger hassles of evicting for lease violations should you turn out to be a problem of some kind.

Most places, the rental market is pretty soft right now. We have no issues with renting to someone here with rotten credit and a good rental history. BK is pretty irrelevant, even. However, your mileage may seriously vary. I know in NY, LA, even Chicago it is very difficult to rent with poor credit, in part because the laws in those states are so weighted to the renter anyway that the owners do not want to take any sort of avoidable risk.