Renting After a Bankruptcy

When you're not a homeowner you probably move to a new apartment or rental house every couple of years, which becomes a lot more difficult when your credit isn't the best. Renting after a bankruptcy can seem downright impossible, but there is hope! With patience, a lot of searching, and the right circumstances, you can find a home that works for you.

What a lot of people end up doing is looking specifically for bad credit apartments, ones that advertise that they'll accept any credit situation. This is really something you only want to do when you've run out of options, you have no relatives to live with, and the alternative is homelessness. Most of the time these situations are barely livable. A lot of people have reported that they get shown one apartment that looks great, but then they rent you the one down the hall, which is in awful condition. The situations vary, but usually you end up with landlords who simply don't fix things and the place falls into disrepair. This can be a very bad situation to be in.

Most large complexes, or ones run by property management companies, have very strict set up rules about who they will accept and who they will deny. There is no room on these applications for bad credit history, which is a problem for you.

For this reason it's usually best to instead look for places with an individual landlord. When you go to see the apartment meet them, talk about what you're looking for, and then explain your situation. Explain why you ended up having these past financial problems in a short, one to three sentence explanation, and then why it is this is no longer a problem. They will care about this. Make sure to point out that you are employed and that you have the income to pay for the apartment. They will probably ask you to pay a larger deposit--this is typically a larger refundable deposit, and will cover at least the last months rent. Be prepared for this.

If the first place you look at doesn't work out, don't be discouraged. It can often take a while to find the right place, especially when you're renting after a bankruptcy, but eventually you should find the situation that will work best for you.