Can't rent because of a charge-off...what can I do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it were me I would just have your DH apply and claim he is moving alone. No LL is going to check who is living there once you actually take possession of the unit and provided you pay rent on time and are not a PITA they will not evict you for it (assuming you don't have like 20 people move into the unit with you).

So she breached one financial contract already and you’re advising her to now do so again?

As long as they pay the rent no one will care so yes that's my advice contingent on the place truly being affordable for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does the LL n
eed everyones credit? What if you were moving in with your 18 y/o kid? I'd see if you can have DH apply alone.

Because they are handing over a unit or house worth $100Kx 3 or 4. OF COURSE they ask to see credit!

Yeah, but why EVERYONE's credit? If DH is the one paying the rent, who cares what the SAHW or 18y/o kid's credit is? That's why I'm confused. I get the point of a credit check in general, did you choose not to read the rest of my post?

There are criminal background checks for everyone over 18. They also check for any prior evictions. Credit score usually only needs to be above 600-650.

Maybe there’s something in OPs criminal background check?

Not unless they care about a single speeding for six over in 2005. I'm not a SAHW, either. Been with the same company for 18 years. These assumptions are so weird. It's the charge-off.

[Anonymous]

Go with private landlord. Seems like you are going for the high end places that have strict rules for people who apply.
Private landlords can decide whatever they want after seeing your credit score, income, and bank account balance.
My income is extremely low and I wouldn't have qualified even for a studio with a big company. Luckily my investment account has three figures and they said that was enough to get me a place. They forgot about the income after that.

[Anonymous]

I'm so sorry, OP. This is not fair to you at all. I have no advice, but I hope you find a nice home somehow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If dh has a high enough income why didn't you all just pay the bill?

We didn't have a high income back then, and it was a pre-marriage personal card I didn't pay. I got in over my head with my baby expenses, then developed PPD and was overwhelmed by everything. Big mistake that I'm trying to rectify.

How much money was it?

Under 2k. I just didn't have it.

So they just write it off? Doesn't that take years to happen? Aren't you supposed to make tiny payments until paying it off. I'm not sure how you instantly got this debt written off.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know what to do about your living situation OP, but I do feel bad so many people are being cruel over something that happened a long time ago and that you take responsibility for.

I had a similar situation. I had a complex tax situation caused by an accountant paid by my company that resulted in a tax bill from a state I briefly worked in 3 years prior. It was only $1700, but I felt that the company and accountant should fix it. Only they took so long to get back to the state I ended up with a lien on my record. I paid the back taxes (which I didn’t even owe) by phone with a credit card the same day I received the lien notice! I didn’t even know a lien was pending because correspondence went to my company instead of me. I thought we were still negotiating. That lien was on my record for 7 years and it cost us money on our first mortgage.

I have also had PPD and I 100% understand not being able to deal with it or just thinking “next week I will fix it” every week until it’s been months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does the LL n
eed everyones credit? What if you were moving in with your 18 y/o kid? I'd see if you can have DH apply alone.

Because they are handing over a unit or house worth $100Kx 3 or 4. OF COURSE they ask to see credit!

Yeah, but why EVERYONE's credit? If DH is the one paying the rent, who cares what the SAHW or 18y/o kid's credit is? That's why I'm confused. I get the point of a credit check in general, did you choose not to read the rest of my post?

There are criminal background checks for everyone over 18. They also check for any prior evictions. Credit score usually only needs to be above 600-650.

Maybe there’s something in OPs criminal background check?

Agree, something isn't right here. Large apartment building LL here, and so long as one party is financially able to pay the rent etc., we don't care about other occupant (think about kids in college who have parents guaranty). Criminal is another story - all authorized adult occupants must pass criminal.

We also might just require a larger deposit if credit is less solid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does the LL n
eed everyones credit? What if you were moving in with your 18 y/o kid? I'd see if you can have DH apply alone.

Because they are handing over a unit or house worth $100Kx 3 or 4. OF COURSE they ask to see credit!

Yeah, but why EVERYONE's credit? If DH is the one paying the rent, who cares what the SAHW or 18y/o kid's credit is? That's why I'm confused. I get the point of a credit check in general, did you choose not to read the rest of my post?

I live with my young adult dd, she was 19 when we rented our house. She's on the lease, they checked her credit and took her income info (she worked part time as she was in school). I qualified based on my own income but they still considered both of ours' credit and income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You cannot rent from a property management company or large building until the charge-off drops from your credit history.

But you can rent from homes that are rented directly by landlords. Just avoid the larger buildings. Look for local listings in condo communities. There are many private landlords that do not use property management companies that will not have this criteria.

I had the opposite experience. We were able to rent from two complexes in downtown Silver Spring with no issues while being rejected by private individuals. Both apartments were nicer than the homes and one was 250 sq feet bigger. The trade off was privacy, of course but it was worth it for 24/7 maintenance. (DH can fix most stuff, but some landlords are funny about tenants repairing big issues plus it’s out of pocket if you fix it yourself.)

A complex isn’t going to go under because one tenant doesn’t pay the rent. A private landlord might be relying on each month’s rent to pay the mortgage on the property.

I guess it varies. In my experience private landlords can be more flexible (since they are making the rules for themselves) and are willing to negotiate, such as paying more months up front, for example, or will listen to OP’s explanation, and might not even run a credit check.

I'm the first PP above. The policy I stated is what I've seen most often. While the larger property management company could afford one non-paying tenant, my experience was that property managers were not breaking rules for anyone. They could afford to wait an extra month or two without renting the apartment, but one financially risky tenant was not worth it to them. It was worth it to lose two months rent leaving a unit empty rather than losing potentially more months rent from a tenant that couldn't pay, couldn't be evicted and was using resources like power and water. Financially risky tenants were almost always a hard no and they rarely break the rule.

Individual landlords were ones that could look at a situation like OP and decide to take the risk. OP has one bad credit problem, a charge off. But since the charge off, she's been able to maintain a good and healthy credit score of over 800. That means she's paid off everything after the charge-off. She's turned from being a terrible credit risk to being a stable one with one past incident that has not fallen off. The current credit risk that a score over 800 shows, is low. So, an individual landlord could look at the person and the situation and decide to take the risk. I don't know of a property management company that would even give a tenant a chance to explain. They would do the credit check and decline the tenant before signing a lease and that would be it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does the LL n
eed everyones credit? What if you were moving in with your 18 y/o kid? I'd see if you can have DH apply alone.

Because they are handing over a unit or house worth $100Kx 3 or 4. OF COURSE they ask to see credit!

Yeah, but why EVERYONE's credit? If DH is the one paying the rent, who cares what the SAHW or 18y/o kid's credit is? That's why I'm confused. I get the point of a credit check in general, did you choose not to read the rest of my post?

If you are in a state with strong tenant protection laws, the financially responsible tenant could move out and leave the landlord with a deadbeat tenant they can’t kick out.

[Anonymous]

I can’t believe your credit is 815 with it on your credit history. I have 18 years of paying every thing on time, never missed a payment, high salary, lots of available credit and mine is 795.

I’d go to an individual landlord.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pay your bills then rent.

I paid it. It's still on my credit history.

It won’t be in your credit history if you paid the original creditor in full. Either you paid the party that acquired the debt and/or you paid them a negotiated lower amount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pay your bills then rent.

I paid it. It's still on my credit history.

It won’t be in your credit history if you paid the original creditor in full. Either you paid the party that acquired the debt and/or you paid them a negotiated lower amount.

I guess DH might have paid a debt collector. I honestly don't know. I was very depressed and didn't even realize the bills had stopped coming until we tried to get a mortgage and I was flat-out denied.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pay your bills then rent.

I paid it. It's still on my credit history.

It won’t be in your credit history if you paid the original creditor in full. Either you paid the party that acquired the debt and/or you paid them a negotiated lower amount.

I guess DH might have paid a debt collector. I honestly don't know. I was very depressed and didn't even realize the bills had stopped coming until we tried to get a mortgage and I was flat-out denied.

This is not true. I posted earlier. Due to a 4 way dispute between myself, an accountant, my employer, and the state of Ohio, I had a tax lien listed on my credit history for 7 years. I had a letter from Ohio proving I paid it in full on the day I was notified of the lien. A few months later I also had a letter from Ohio to my accountant with my case number confirming it was in error and not actually owed in the first place! None of the big 3 credit bureaus would take it off my credit history. All they would do is put a note in my file - which doesn’t count for anything if you are applying for a mortgage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If dh has a high enough income why didn't you all just pay the bill?

We didn't have a high income back then, and it was a pre-marriage personal card I didn't pay. I got in over my head with my baby expenses, then developed PPD and was overwhelmed by everything. Big mistake that I'm trying to rectify.

How much money was it?

Under 2k. I just didn't have it.

So they just write it off? Doesn't that take years to happen? Aren't you supposed to make tiny payments until paying it off. I'm not sure how you instantly got this debt written off.

I think I have the flow right...Luckily for me its been 15 years...

Credit card debt (always shows on report)
Late/no payments (affects score)
Card "charged it off" (deemed it uncollectible, shows up on the credit report)
Sells to debt collector (shows up on report)
OP pays full amount or settles with debt collector (on report)
Marked as paid in full (on report)

All of this stays on the report for 7 years.