Is it the property management company that is reporting the unpaid clean up costs that were not covered by your security or cleaning deposit (if there was one)? Is it an outside third party debt collection agency that shows up for this debt? If you needed to, in order to put this behind you and get approved for a new rental, could you come up with some money to settle the old bill?
The answers to those question could change my feedback about how to approach cleaning your credit up.
Past landlord collections on credit can be overcome.
Renting an apartment with collections and past landlord issues on your credit reports is not impossible. Your pool of properties to choose from will often shrink though.
6 ways I have seen past debt relief customers rent a place, even with terrible credit, have included:
- Be proactive and explain the past rental and collection issues up front. The smaller the property you may rent from, the likelier it may be that you can actually sit down with the person making the credit decisions. Write a well crafted letter that includes the details you need to cover, and include that with the application you submit.
- Rent a room from a local homeowner. The owner may not run your credit to approve you. And you have the highest chance of making a great impression in person when you meet to see the place, which can help you overcome credit objections.
- Renting a duplex or fourplex from the building owner that is an onsite tenant would have similar face to face benefits to renting a room.
- Lay down a larger deposit than what is being requested for the specific place you are submitting an application to rent from. And put the fact that you are willing to increase, or even double your deposit, right out there when you are talking to the owner or manager.
- Look for any discrepancy in what is being reported to the credit bureaus. Find an angle to dispute the most offending items off of your credit reports. More on this when you answer my questions about who is reporting in the comments section below.
- Hire a credit repair company.
Do not leave applications with the person at the front desk, or submit them online. Show up in person, and ask to speak to the property manager or owner. Dress well, keep great eye contact, and sell them on why you are a good choice as a tenant, regardless of what might be seen on your credit report.
Credit clean up companies.
There are credit repair companies out there that have some success cleaning up negative items off your credit reports. Some charge monthly fees that are reasonable. Using a credit repair company for a few months to see if they can clean up a key derogatory over some minutia may be worth it. Just know going in that it can be difficult to get blatantly false information off your credit. If you do pay out for credit clean up, and you are trying to get something that is 100% accurate and current removed, you may not have any success.
You can clean up your own credit reports. It takes time just like hiring a credit repair agency would. There is nothing scientific to it, but it is something people will avoid doing for themselves.
I will have more to share once you post answers to the questions I posed above.
Anyone reading with questions or concerns related to credit report clean up and getting into a rental is welcome to post in the comments below for feedback.
4 comment(s) for this post:
- deb:
18 Feb 2015 lo, Thank you so much for responding.. Yes this is a third party I called them a couple months ago to try and settle and they said no they wanted the total due and if I paid it in full it would remain on my credit report for 7 yrs. Its recovery rent of better NOI,LLC and a interest of 5.% per annum they also kept my deposit. I am building my credit with a auto loan. Thank you Debra - Michael Bovee:
18 Feb 2015 If the original property owner or management company still owns the legal rights to the debt (old unpaid bills get bundled up and sold to debt buyers), see if you can contact them and negotiate something with them directly. If they refer you back to Better NOI because they are under contract, ask if or when that contract is set to expire. If they are willing to work with you on it, and are able to in the near future, it could be worth the effort. If you succeed in this, I would circle back and dispute BetterNOI being on your credit reports. If you find out the unpaid bill was sold off to a debt buyer, it would help to know who. How much time do you have to work with to find and get approved for a place? Trying the credit repair company route could take at least 30 to 60 days. Using the 50% you were willing to settle with Better NOI, but applying that money to the approach I mentioned in #4 above instead, could work. BetterNOI works in major cities. Are smaller properties even an option for where you work and would choose to live? - E Walters:
04 Apr 2015 Hi, Michael, I've read some of the advice that you have given to others on this thread. Hopefully you can help me. I live in Chicago and I am currently having a hard time finding an apartment because of my credit. I signed up with sky blue credit reporting to help dispute some errors on my credit. I was told by my sister that that should help improve my score which is currently in the mid 500 range. I have some utility bills that I owe, cell phone bills, a loan owed to my former college, school loans, and 2 judgments from former landlords. I believe that the judgements are what is hurting my chances of getting approved for an apartment. I can't afford to pay off the judgements all at once. Do you have any advice for how I should go about taking care of the judgements? I seems impossible for me to find a place with those on my record. I haven't been able to find any credible programs in Chicago that can help me. - Michael Bovee:
04 Apr 2015 I moved your post over to this page as it has more to do with creative ways to seek an apartment with damaged credit. Read from the top. It is likely the prior history with past landlords that is holding you back the most. And how you get from here to there (approved by the typical management company), is probably going to mean having the money to resolve the judgments, and time, or both. This means you are looking at the need to be flexible with your expectations with what you will qualify for. How much can you pull together to resolve the judgments if they were willing to accept less to resolve the debts? How old are the judgments?