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I am currently homeless and trying to get into subsidized housing. They want previous LL info.
The place I moved out of last has shifted management to a new housing manager. I went by there today and they said they weren't having anything to do with those apartments anymore. I explained about trying to get subsidized housing and that I needed current contact information for all of my previous landlords. I was given first name and phone number for new housing manager. Said they did not keep any records from the apartments.
Called new housing manager and explained why I was calling. She said all she was given was old leases and payment records from April 1st onward. Said she had no idea if I paid on time and had no records of move out or deposit refunds. She asked for the unit number and I gave it to her. I told her I paid on time and that I received a full refund of deposit. She said that surprised her because the unit needs new carpet. The carpet was that way when I moved in. The way the previous LL, the actual owner, did the apartments in regards to allowing pets is that only the apartments with lousy carpet were eligible for having pets. Pets weren't allowed in units with new carpet. I told her the owner could verify this and she wasn't interested.
She also refused to give me contact information for the building owner. Only the building owner, who used to run the properties himself, can verify the other two apartments I lived at in his properties. I cannot get into subsidized housing without this information.
The other places I've lived, most have sold the buildings and those records are gone too. One place I used to live in was even bulldozed, including the rental office, and there are new buildings being built on the land.
I'm disabled with multiple health problems and currently fighting an appeal with social security office that said even though I didn't show health improvement that I needed to adapt to a new line of work. If you have already been deemed unable to work a desk job by their rehabilitation expert, what's left to adapt to? Legal aid agreed to help with the appeal. Legal aid worker handed me list of subsidized housing and I've been trying to get into housing, but this landlord reference is a hurdle I can't seem to get around. I'm supposed to be on a breathing machine that runs on electricity, but I cannot use it since I'm living in my truck.
If I could get the owner's information he would most likely give me a wonderful reference. All I know is that he moved to another state and which state he moved to but that's it. Google searches have resulted in a lot of people with his name, but no one that matches up. The results say where a person used to live and none of the results with his name says that particular person used to live where I know this person used to live.
The way these subsidized housing works for applications you fill out these sheets with the previous address and the landlord information. There is a sheet per address. I currently have no addresses for my previous landlords with good records for the past ten years because ownership has changed hands. Only two from before then are still current, but they want recent information. And those landlords probably wouldn't remember me after all this time anyway. The LL would have to remember me and remember that I paid on time for these forms.
I cannot get into housing at anywhere else because SSI only pays $735/month so I cannot make 3x rent for anywhere. Plus, if I lose the appeal I won't have rent money and will end up with an eviction, so it's not a good idea to go for housing that isn't based on income. I've never been evicted anywhere and don't want that to ever happen.
I am currently homeless and trying to get into subsidized housing.
They want previous LL info.
You need to create a paper trail documenting what you've done verbally.
I'd suggest getting help from your caseworker to draft the letters requesting what
should be common business records and or their written explanations for why they
are unable to produce them.
Did you pay rent with checks? You bank can provide copies of all the rent checks.
Go down to the county assessor's office and they can give you the mailing address of the previous owner. Send a letter marked "please forward".
Sorry, but you are paying for all the cheats who go to great lengths to prevent contact with their previous landlord.
Myself, I don't rent to anyone without landlord references. I am willing to put a little extra work into screening, but you can see how much effort it takes to track down information that the applicant won't provide. There is a limit to how much extra research you can expect a landlord to do.
Did you pay rent with checks? You bank can provide copies of all the rent checks.
Go down to the county assessor's office and they can give you the mailing address of the previous owner. Send a letter marked "please forward".
Sorry, but you are paying for all the cheats who go to great lengths to prevent contact with their previous landlord.
Myself, I don't rent to anyone without landlord references. I am willing to put a little extra work into screening, but you can see how much effort it takes to track down information that the applicant won't provide. There is a limit to how much extra research you can expect a landlord to do.
I wish you luck.
I paid with money orders. I scanned some of the stubs to a pdf file and then there are some I haven't scanned yet. But that's not what the subsidized housing goes by. They go by the LL filling out the papers. I have never been late on rent though. The LL rented to me twice after the first time without screening because I always paid on time at the first apartment of his I lived at.
The owner is the same owner I found out today. He just moved to another state and hired a management company to handle the apartments. If I had his address I could put it on the forms and I know he'd give me great reference.
Would they have his contact information at the county office? I know his first and last name and what state he moved to, but I don't even know which town he moved to in that state.
Did you pay rent with checks? You bank can provide copies of all the rent checks.
Go down to the county assessor's office and they can give you the mailing address of the previous owner. Send a letter marked "please forward".
Sorry, but you are paying for all the cheats who go to great lengths to prevent contact with their previous landlord.
Myself, I don't rent to anyone without landlord references. I am willing to put a little extra work into screening, but you can see how much effort it takes to track down information that the applicant won't provide. There is a limit to how much extra research you can expect a landlord to do.
I wish you luck.
(1) The homeless people I have known probably didn't write checks.
(2) Over the past nine years, I have sequentially rented rooms from:
a) a homeowner who died several months in; his wife died several years later
b) a guy who rented the house from his buddy who was working 1,000 miles away on an oil rig
c) a guy who rents the house from an absentee landlord - in 18 months here I have never met the landlord. Oh, and this guy - who presumably doesn't report his rental income - operates on a cash basis and doesn't accept checks.
How many landlord references am I going to get out of that? It's my problem if landlords die and/or don't properly manage their properties?
contact your local tax collector, court house or property appraiser....they can give you the owners address. In Florida we can look that up online for free. Head to your local library and ask them to help you.
This problem has blindsided me, because a month hadn't even passed before the former manager handed off all the old leases to the new managers and destroyed all other records pertaining to the property. I thought I'd have no problem getting good reference for my time there. The former manager didn't mention not handling the property anymore at all when I picked up my deposit refund two or three weeks ago. I believe I received the refund 3/24. I picked it up in person at their office.
Have been trying to look him up online, but so far there's no updated address from when he used to live in this state. He moved to FL from KY and it isn't updated so far in a google search. Will be asking library, legal aid, and other places for help.
Is there some kind of law requiring property managers to keep records? Or at least pass the records, all of them, to new management? It doesn't seem right that this property manager was able to just destroy all the records like that.
What you need to demonstrate is that you asked the questions
Polite letters asking for reasonable things from what should be responsible professionals.
If THEY can't produce the answers... you've still identified the address and the approximate
period of time for your tenancies and who the responsible party was at that time.
Get it on paper. Snail mail letters by certified mail.
Not email. Not verbal.
What you need to demonstrate is that you asked the questions
Polite letters asking for reasonable things from what should be responsible professionals.
If THEY can't produce the answers... you've still identified the address and the approximate
period of time for your tenancies and who the responsible party was at that time.
Get it on paper. Snail mail letters by certified mail.
Not email. Not verbal.
All I have for the new manager is a first name and a phone number. She wouldn't give me an address or her last name.
I have the information for the former manager that I was paying the rent to for most of a year. What should I specifically say in a certified letter to that manager?
In the meantime, I saved the lease and the memo we all got when he shifted management to an actual management company. I never received an exit summary, just the deposit refund, from the former manager. It will take some time, but I can probably locate all of the payment receipts. Right now I'm living in my truck and my stuff is packed into a storage shed, so it would take at least days of searching to find this stuff.
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