What are my chances of renting an apartment? (Los Angeles, CA) (apartments, tenants)
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Hi everybody!
So I'm in need of some advice/input on renting an apartment with terrible credit. This is my backstory, so please grin and bear these details with me.
I've lived in my current apartment for the past nine years, it falls under rent control. I had bed bugs earlier this summer and through the whole process of ridding the bed bugs the housing and health departments both visited my unit. Two other tenants in my building had bed bugs before I did and the landlord did not pay for them to exterminate the bugs so they are circulating the building. To my surprise my landlord actually paid to have the bed bugs exterminated from my unit. After the extermination my landlord had my carpeting ripped up and removed. Dirty, cracked, unfinished cement was left in it's place. There were staples sticking up out of the floor and glue everywhere. It left the apartment inhabitable (this was when I had the health and housing departments com visit and see the living conditions). It took my landlord one whole month to replace the carpet with wood laminate flooring, meanwhile leaving me homeless as my landlord wanted me to pay for the floor and half of the extermination. I still paid my rent, even though I was homeless for a month and was not even properly relocated temporarily.
When the housing department came I also reported the possibility of my unit being illegal. I had suspicions it possibly could be considering all my utilities are included and I only receive mail from my P.O. box and not actually at my building. In November of last year we had a building inspection and my landlord wanted to disguise my apartment as a "closet" so the inspector would not come in. He told me he wanted to do this because I have three small parakeets and the inspector would have me kicked out if he saw parakeets in a no pet building, even though my landlord has allowed them for years. My fear instinct was to protect my birds and of course became fear driven of being scared of being kicked out, so I went a long with his wishes. Now looking back I realize he was probably trying to hide my illegal unit. I found out last week from the rent investigator involved after doing their research that my apartment is indeed illegal, so I will need to move.
I have no issues with moving because I wanted to get out of bed bug city anyways, knowing my landlord does not care about the building or tenants. However I fear becoming homeless anyways out of the fear that no one will rent to me. Here are the reasons for my fear:
1. Because my unit is illegal it looks like I have no rental history, even though I have lived there for nine years. And I don't think I can expect a positive review form my current landlord considering I have called him out on the illegal unit, bed bugs, and the lacking of floor for one month. There is now bad blood.
2. Three years ago I went through bankruptcy. It had no impact what so ever on my ability to pay rent. It was all credit card related and I was in over my head so I went through chapter 7. Since then I only have one credit card that I pay off in full every time I use it and my credit score is 680. I also have been working at current job for over a year now and my mom sends me $1500 every month to help with expenses (despite that she will NOT be a co-signer on an apartment, we've already had that discussion). But I always hear how bankruptcy is a non negotiable on rental applications, so I'm scared that will ruin my chances of renting regardless of how I've improved things.
3. Fear of eviction. I have not been evicted out of my current apartment, but considering I do have to leave I fear this whole process becoming an eviction and if it does that will be just another reason people will not want to rent to me.
Because if I where evicted it would be a no fault eviction for me and because of rent control my landlord is required to pay me $7000-$19000 in relocation costs. After I was moved and settled I was planning on taking him to small claims anyway for all the loss and extra costs I had to pay from the bed bugs.
As I'm searching for apartments I'm really trying to find ones with positive reviews since I cannot deal with another management company like this again. The past few months have been emotionally, mentally, physically, and financially draining . I know many people will tell me to look for privately owned situations if I'm worried about the credit check etc, but I also do not want to be in another illegal unit because lots of privately owned situations could have that and I don't want to go through something like this ever again. I am looking for apartments with a couple friends of mine. One has worse credit than mine (no bankruptcy) but all school loan and medical bill debt, the other has a credit score in the high 600's like I do. I find myself frozen in fear to even look for apartments most of the time because I'm scared of constantly being rejected and I know I will only have a limited amount of time to be out of this apartment. I also don't want to watch my credit score drop from applying at one place after another. Given my background situation, what are my chances of securing a decent apartment (legal, not in the ghetto)?
First off, has the landlord given you a written 30 day notice to vacate?
Has the city formally charged the landlord with code violations, or illegal rental?
If none of thee have happened, you don't need to move right away, unless you want too.
As for relocation fees, don't expect any unless you are evicted because the unit has been found to be illegal.
I am wondering where you got the figure of up to $19000 for relocation fees.
The most a landlord would have to pay is$3200.00, unless you meet certain conditions, then the fee is raised.
Obviously your credit history is going to play a major role in your ability to secure a rental unit.
As for being a bit leary about having to rent "another" illegal unit, there is one way to know if the unit is legal, and that is to ask to see the CO (Certificate of occupancy)
All rental units in the city require this certificate, issued by the city.
If a landlord either can't, or refuses to produce this certificate, move on.
I would limit my search to property owned by one person, rather than a management company.
Be up front with the perspective landlord regarding your credit, and offer to pay more up front .
This often will get you into a new rental unit.
As for your divulging your current rental status, again, be honest and let the new landlord know the facts about the unit's legal status.
Don't mention the fact that you turned the landlord into the city.
Also tell the new landlord the reason you want to see the CO is because your previous rental turned out to be illegal.
First off, has the landlord given you a written 30 day notice to vacate? Not yet, but they will soon.
Has the city formally charged the landlord with code violations, or illegal rental? Yes.
If none of thee have happened, you don't need to move right away, unless you want too.
As for relocation fees, don't expect any unless you are evicted because the unit has been found to be illegal.
I am wondering where you got the figure of up to $19000 for relocation fees. That is what the paper work says that I was sent according to the rent investigator. They specify $7000-$19000 depending on length of tenancy.
The most a landlord would have to pay is$3200.00, unless you meet certain conditions, then the fee is raised.
Obviously your credit history is going to play a major role in your ability to secure a rental unit.
As for being a bit leary about having to rent "another" illegal unit, there is one way to know if the unit is legal, and that is to ask to see the CO (Certificate of occupancy)
All rental units in the city require this certificate, issued by the city.
If a landlord either can't, or refuses to produce this certificate, move on.
I would limit my search to property owned by one person, rather than a management company.
Be up front with the perspective landlord regarding your credit, and offer to pay more up front .
This often will get you into a new rental unit.
As for your divulging your current rental status, again, be honest and let the new landlord know the facts about the unit's legal status.
Don't mention the fact that you turned the landlord into the city.
Also tell the new landlord the reason you want to see the CO is because your previous rental turned out to be illegal.
Hope this helps.
Bob.
Thank you Bob, this does help a lot ! I didn't know about the certificate of occupancy, so I will definitely be on the lookout for those! Do you you know the best websites or places to find privately owned properties? I feel like majority of what I see out there are larger management companies.
Without reading the story of your life my guess is that your chances are pretty poor.
Hmm.... Well, it's not the story of my life, if you actually took the time to read the post you would see it's only in regards to the recent past. I wrote it because it's complicated and not a typical situation. It's not black and white or a cookie cutter scenario. With that said you can't pass a judgment without reading in its entirety. If you didn't want to read the whole post that's ok too. You don't need to respond to something you didn't fully read than either.
Thank you Bob, this does help a lot ! I didn't know about the certificate of occupancy, so I will definitely be on the lookout for those! Do you you know the best websites or places to find privately owned properties? I feel like majority of what I see out there are larger management companies.
I know of no web site that list independent property owners.
There may be some, but I don't know of any.
I think you could look at rentals on Craig's List, as many individual property owners(me included) use that site to advertise our rentals.
I know of no web site that list independent property owners.
There may be some, but I don't know of any.
I think you could look at rentals on Craig's List, as many individual property owners(me included) use that site to advertise our rentals.
Bob.
Thanks, yeah I've browsed around Craigslist quite a bit. Hard to filter through it sometimes between scams, larger management companies, and finding good and decent individual property owner is like finding a needle in a haystack. Back to the drawing board for now I guess.
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Here are the reasons for my fear:
. I know many people will tell me to look for privately owned situations if I'm worried about the credit check etc, but I also do not want to be in another illegal unit because lots of privately owned situations could have that and I don't want to go through something like this ever again. I am looking for apartments with a couple friends of mine. One has worse credit than mine (no bankruptcy) but all school loan and medical bill debt, the other has a credit score in the high 600's like I do. I find myself frozen in fear to even look for apartments most of the time because I'm scared of constantly being rejected and I know I will only have a limited amount of time to be out of this apartment. I also don't want to watch my credit score drop from applying at one place after another. Given my background situation, what are my chances of securing a decent apartment (legal, not in the ghetto)?
! I didn't know about the certificate of occupancy, so I will definitely be on the lookout for those! Do you you know the best websites or places to find privately owned properties? I feel like majority of what I see out there are larger management companies. 
