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Apartment from 4 years ago is ruining my current chances
1ddqd
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I have found the best apartment for me near my job. The problem is they've pulled my credit report.
Back story: In college, I was in an on-campus housing complex called Centennial Court. My roommates and I (there were 4 of us) were charged separately for each room (came to about $400 each), plus a security deposit. I only lived in them for 1 year, and when I moved out, I think I got a refund.
Present Day: I call them up and they have no immediate record on file of this debt ($63). They have to get the accountant to call me back, which I asked them to do today.
In the meantime, what options do I have? I gave them my Google Voice number, so when they call me I'm going to record it. I'm in Texas, which is a one-party state (for recordings).
Back story: In college, I was in an on-campus housing complex called Centennial Court. My roommates and I (there were 4 of us) were charged separately for each room (came to about $400 each), plus a security deposit. I only lived in them for 1 year, and when I moved out, I think I got a refund.
Present Day: I call them up and they have no immediate record on file of this debt ($63). They have to get the accountant to call me back, which I asked them to do today.
In the meantime, what options do I have? I gave them my Google Voice number, so when they call me I'm going to record it. I'm in Texas, which is a one-party state (for recordings).
1ddqd on
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I'm not sure what the new place has an issue with. Surely you lived somewhere else in the 3 years since, right?
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Ok to clarify - I paid nearly every month's rent on time. I was late twice, due to being out of town on holiday and in the hospital another. I received most of my security deposit back, but I don't have the bank statements to prove it (I closed the credit union account I was using at the time and have since switched to Bank of America. Since we're going on 7 years, the records were most likely destroyed (and the credit union account I had switched names to Viewpoint Bank...so doubtful the records exist there).
tldr: never missed a rent payment, even paid the last one. $63 is what they say I owe. No immediate record of it, accountant has to dumpster dive to find it. Crafting a "proof of debt" letter now to send certified today on my lunch break.
Even your clarification isn't very clear. You were never late, except when you were? o_O The hospital I can understand, but being out of town isn't a viable excuse for most places.
tl;dr - Because Old Place claims you owe $63, New Place isn't renting to you?
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
Arguing with the apartment group over the details of this will not play out in your favor. It will make you look like an irritable or untrustworthy tenant, even if it isn't the case. I'd play the "I was not aware of that, I took care of it immediately" card, which makes you look like an inattentive, if mostly upstanding sort of fellow, which is probably preferable.
Keep in mind, any apartment that is held by a group, trust, or rental company will make sure there is no chance on their losing on the investment. This means if they are letting you in without a hassle, that the apartment is a dive or they are desperate. If they give you trouble, it means the apartment is quality or they suck at something have been sued lots of times.
Use your common sense in evaluating the situation.
I was only late twice (3-5 days overdue) at the apartments who say I owe $63.
The red flag for the new place is that this shows up on my credit report. I have 4 years since of clean rental history with no damages, no complaints, nothing.
I don't know that it will prevent me from getting the place, but I have pay stubs to prove I'm 3x the rent amount (in addition to my girlfriend's funds, who also is going on the lease). The girl from the new place said she needs something from my old place that says either the debt isn't mine or that it's been taken care of.
If I just pay it, the charge won't be off my record. I want it erased, and simply paying it just says "Sure, I didn't pay these guys hur hur!"
I think you're sweating over nothing. Have you called the new (potential) apartment place and let them know what's up? They might say "No biggie" especially if you have 3 other, and more recent, years of good rental history. At worse, as Improvolone said, they might raise the deposit a bit.
They would much rather have the place rented than not though, so you have that going for you.
Gotcha. So you're positive you don't owe Old Place the $63? And is Old Place chasing you directly, or is it a collection agency?
Tell the new place that you are positive that the debt is not yours, you received your security deposit back without any deductions of $63, and you are requesting proof of debt from them via certified mail.
And in the meantime, just expect to slap down a bigger security deposit. Money talks - several months as a deposit screams.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
Ugh, is it a ZOM community? If so, turn tail and run.
If you haven't done so already, look in your local newspaper for individual leased properties. The downsides are that, depending on your landlord, you can have a freaking awesome situation or a terribad one. This is true about the companies as well, but the difference is that with a non-community landlord:
-Your rent will usually be lower
-things will get fixed faster (if its a good lease)
-better properties
Really, I've rented in a lot of places before I got where I am now. I have a huge place, rent it for cheaper than I could have got an apartment a third of the size, and my landlady lives on the other side of the nation (no inspection). When things break (like my AC last summer), it gets fixed in days, not weeks like some communities do.
Just something to think about.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
ZOM is a management company that operates in the southeast and midwestern US. They are well known for buying decent apartment complexes, evicting any with a credit score below a certain amount, renovating the empty ones to make them seem ritzy, then raising the rent for their tenants by a ridiculous amount to pay for the renovations the existing tenants will never see.
They are also well known for "losing" safety deposits, delaying the check out walkthroughs until after the deadline required to get deposits back, not repairing essentials (one of the most prevalent are the stairwells for buildings, putting up caution tape and ignoring collapsed masonry on the non-showcase buildings rather than reparing the stairs).
This is just some of the things they do. Bad news. I've ended up in two communities that were bought out by them, same story for both. I wasn't evicted, but when you rent for a one/one goes from $690 to $1150 for renovations you won't see, you can imagine how fast you will move out.
So a corporation of slum lords, basically? Sounds lovely.
Glad it's limited to that region.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
To the OP, something to consider with managed communities. Your lease can be bought and sold, with no guarantee of getting another year there at the same rate.
With our shared apartment, the only thing we could have been charged for would have been living or kitchen, bedrooms were our own property. And being that my old roommate got money back too, it couldn't have been a common area that sapped the security deposit. Especially since I'm pretty sure I got some money back. I just don't have statements in my hands at the moment.
Holy shit, this describes what happened to me exactly. I'm in Florida, we stayed in a nice apartment community with decent rent for a year. ZOM bought them midway through the year. Stairs stayed broken for awhile with caution tape, exactly as you said. When it came time to renew, they tried to up our rent by like $200, for the same reasons you said: they were renovating the empty apartments, of course, we wouldn't see those renovations if we stayed in the same place. We got out of there fast. Funny, they even couldn't schedule walkout times before our lease was up, and delayed the safety deposit return. in the end, we got everything back, but it sucked because the community, and location were great. But fuck if I pay an extra $200 a month for no tangible benefit to me.
As to the OP, I don't really have a lot of advice. As others said, I'm surprised this is an issue, as you have good records at other places in the meantime. Tell the new place you've never heard about this debt, they never took it out of your deposit, and you're currently working on resolving it. I'd be surprised if this prevented you from leasing.
Sun Key?
Don't you guys have rent control where you live? Doing that here would be illegal.
I host a podcast about movies.
In DC you can only increase the rent by a certain % each year, and another certain % every two years.
Why hello there former neighbor.