Rent question.

[rs422a]

We are planning to file for Chapter 7 within a month or so. We are letting our house go to foreclosure. In the area we live it is somewhat difficult to find a good rental house but we found one yesterday we can both live with for a few years. We met the landlord who is a real nice fellow. Alll I told him was that we are trying to shortsell our house (which is true - but we haven't had an offer in over a month and i doubt my mortgage holder will accept one anyway). We would like to secure this rental house as I don't see us staying here much longer than 2 months.

I plan to go ahead and sign a lease on the rental now and do the security deposit and start paying rent as we slowly migrate away from our current house. What happens when I file for chapter 7? Will the landlord get a letter? Should I tell him our intentions now or wait?

[MSbklawyer]

As part of your bankruptcy petition you are required to list any unexpired leases to which you are a party on Schedule G, and your intention with respect to those leases -- to either assume them or reject them. So yes, your new landlord will get a notice of your bankruptcy if you are in a lease agreement with him at the time you file.

If you think this will be a problem, why not file the bankruptcy first, then enter the lease?

[rs422a]

Thanks for the reply. Because of some details we need to work out concerning my S-Corp we are not quite ready to file just yet. I don't think it would be an issue with the proposed landlord as he strikes me as the type of guy who would understand as long as we intend to uphold our end of the lease - which we would. But having never gone through all this before makes me real skittish of every little detail as I need to try and make this transitional phase of our lives as easy as possible for my family.

My landlord knows we are trying to shortsell and he himself stated yesterday he had a house he almost had to walk away from, so this leads me to believe he would be somewhat more understanding of our plight than say property management company or real estate representative. I think he would be the type of fellow who just wants us to take care of his house and pay him on time. But then again, I just met him.

I suppose I am suffering from an extreme case of pre-chapter 7 jitters.

[ess]

I rent and filed last month. When my attorney did up the petition he needed to know what my security deposit is that the landlord is holding. I do not have a lease, he never asked if I had one. I asked him if the landlord is informed of my filing and his answer was no, not unless you are behind in your rent.

[Drazil65]

Do you have a foreclosure date already? If not it could be quite a few months (or a year or 2) before you would have move. You could stay there and stockpile some cash for a while and then when you have to move you would have plenty of cash and more than enough time to move. What is your hurry if you are not paying anything where you are living now? Filing chp 7 will delay any foreclosure action (for a little while anyway) that is going on so that would also buy you some time.

[goon]

One note to add, in my case my lease was listed in the BK petition, my land lord shows up in 13datacenter, but my landlord was never notified by the courts, not sure why. I have a good relationship with the landlord, told him up front what was happening and to expect something from the court, he never got anything thou. Not sure if this was a fluke or not, just adding some input.

[mountanddo]

I rent and filed last month. When my attorney did up the petition he needed to know what my security deposit is that the landlord is holding. I do not have a lease, he never asked if I had one. I asked him if the landlord is informed of my filing and his answer was no, not unless you are behind in your rent.

I'm in a chapter 13 and I was not asked about my deposit or my lease. My landlord was not notified either. Might be because it is a 13 and not a 7.