How to Rent After Filing Chapter 7
QUESTION: I live in Newport Beach and a few years ago the combination of a ruinous divorce settlement, an unexpected layoff and poor financial planning forced me to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Even while I was unemployed, I dutifully made rent and car payments as scheduled. The other debts were discharged.
Soon, I will need to rent another apartment. My landlord of six years has written a letter of recommendation for me indicating that I have always paid my rent on time and was an exemplary tenant.
I have been employed at the same professional job for three years now, and I have a good job. Is there anything else that I can do to ensure that my rental application will be accepted by a new landlord? How concerned should I be about the bankruptcy?
ANSWER: State law requires that all landlords who are marketing vacancies accept your rental application. It’s what they do with it after that that counts. As for how you should be, that depends more than anything on what has happened with your credit since the bankruptcy.
Honesty is the best policy and that never applies more than in your situation. Since the prospective landlord will find out all about the bankruptcy anyway when he runs your credit report, you don’t lose anything by telling him about it before that.
Tell him about the bankruptcy at the time you apply for the apartment, explaining the circumstances surrounding it. Few things will impress a prospective landlord more than your open, up-front acknowledgment, and reasonable explanation, of a past transgression.
Your credit history since the time of the bankruptcy will be another of the keys to getting the keys to an apartment. If it’s good, the bankruptcy won’t count against you nearly so much as if your recent credit history is also marred.
It probably wouldn’t hurt to remind the landlord that you can’t file for bankruptcy for the next four years, which should make a new landlord feel a little more secure.
Also, one of your strong points is your stability, six years in one apartment and three years at the same job. Stress that when filling out applications.
How to Get Possessions Returned After Moving
Q: After spending several years at a Brentwood apartment, I moved for health reasons to a retirement home in Culver City. The maintenance manager of my former residence supervised the move but kept three boxes of my personal papers.
These included military service documents, personal correspondences and foreign travel papers, among other things. My memorabilia file sustained a great loss because of the reluctant attitude of this manager.
Months later, and after numerous requests, both verbal and in writing (I even wrote to the owner of the building), one of the boxes has been returned to me. Do you have any suggestions about how I can get the rest of my belongings back?
A: Since you have the absolute right to your possessions, and since you don’t mind writing letters, I would suggest one more letter to the owner before you go to the city attorney charging the manager with theft. If it goes that far, the city attorney generally will set up an informal hearing to attempt to resolve the charge.
Say that you have been more than patient with your requests for return of your personal property, but your patience is running out.
As an alternative, you may sue him and the manager in small claims court to recover the two boxes of documents if they are not returned within, say, a week.
Also, it wouldn’t hurt to let him know that you will seek any damages the court may see fit to award if you can’t resolve this dispute amicably.
What Happens When Tenant Neglects Yard
Q: I own a rental property in Valencia and I have a problem I’m hoping you can solve. When the tenants moved into the house, they agreed to maintain the premises, including the front and back yard. For that, they got a lower rent rate since I wouldn’t have to pay for a gardener.
Unfortunately, they did not maintain the premises. The lawn died, so it was necessary to plant a new one. In the process, I also chose to install a sprinkler system, making the total expense over $2,000.
Can I deduct any of this expense from the security deposit? Also can I increase their rent to pay for a gardener?
A: If you have a month-to-month rental agreement, it can be changed with a 30-day notice. In the notice you will withdraw the “maintenance concession” and increase the rent.
If you have a lease, it has been breached and the remedy is eviction, but you needn’t go that far. If they are willing, and they should be, given that their alternative is eviction, have the tenants sign an addendum to the lease reflecting the withdrawal of the maintenance concession and increasing the rent.
As for deducting the cost of planting the new lawn from the security deposit, you may deduct it. However, you may have to prove in Small Claims Court that the lawn died because of the tenant’s failure to maintain it. You cannot deduct for the sprinkler system.
