Apartment dilemma

In My Humble Opinion
1

Okay. What would y’all do in this situation:

You live in an apartment you hate. It’s ugly, overpriced, and the building manager is an asshole and hates you (because you objected to him waltzing in and out of your apartment on a whim without permission or knowledge and no legal reason to be there). Because of various monetary difficulties, you become 2 months behind on your rent. Despite working out a deal with the landlord to pay the back rent by January 31 and everything would be cool, you still get an eviction notice. (He must have changed his mind. Happy freakin’ holidays.)

So, you have until January 31 to move out. It’s actually not that bad of a thing, you’ve been meaning to move out for about 6 months now, but now you have fear of homelessness to drive you.

You call on several apartments and view them.

One of them is an efficiency, in excellent condition, is really big for an efficiency, has hardwood floors, and despite the lack of separate bedroom, is really far superior to your current apartment (not only that, but it’s 130 dollars cheaper). The owner is really nice, there’s no building manager to deal with, she only owns the one building. There’s an application to fill out and a criminal background check. You know for certain that your references and former landlord gave glowing reviews of you (the current landlord wasn’t mentioned, as far as the building owner knows, you’re currently living with your parents.) The criminal background check will definitely come back clean, but that takes three days, so you’ll find out about this apartment next week some time. There is, however, a remote possibility of the owner finding out that you’re lying about your current living arrangements. Also, she may decide to rent to someone else.

Tonight, you look at another apartment. It’s in good condition, very clean, and 170 dollars cheaper than your current apartment. It is, however, very, very small, dark, in the basement, and the furnishings are beyond ugly. The landlord doesn’t believe in leases or contracts, he prefers to just trust his tenants. He seems like a very nice little old man, kinda reminded you of Jimmy Stewart. He prefers that you stay a year, but there’s nothing holding you there, he only asks that if you must move, you give a month’s notice. The apartment is yours, it’s a sure thing, if you call the landlord by 5:00 tomorrow, which is when he is leaving his home to show it to someone else.

If you take the second apartment, you can buy yourself a whole lot of time to find a place you really, really like and is within your price range. But, the place is really, really, really ugly and cramped. You’ll never fit all your crap down there, and it’s in a friggin’ basement!

If you wait to hear about the first place, which you really, really like and do have a good chance of getting, there’s a possibility that the second place will be taken and you’ll have to keep on searching, and possibly have to move in your parents (and have to tell them you’ve been evicted, that would be beyond embarrassing) if you don’t find a place in time.

Thoughts? Opinions?

2

Personally, I wouldn’t take the basement apartment. I’d go crazy living like that, and I’d hate to take it as an interem housing, because the old guy sounds sweet, and I’d feel guilty leaving as soon as something better came along.

I sincerely doubt that the landlady you mentioned first will doscover your current arrangements, unless she calls your folks and they rat you out. Most landlords don’t do THAT much digging. (That can get expensive, and time consuming.) As long as your background checks come out fine, I can’t see a reason why she wouldn’t rent to you. Look at it from her perspective: she’s got you wanting the place already . . . why go looking for someone else? It’s not like she’s going to ask for more from the next guy, and if she is, well, hey, who wants to get into a bidding war?

I’d say wait for the nicer apartment. Worse comes to worse, you could put your stuff in storage and crash with a friend for a few days until you find something else.

Good luck!

3

Uh huh. The old guy seems sweet and prefers to trust his tenants. Mmmmkay. Well, without a lease, you have very little legal protection and he knows it. The old guy is a shark. I wouldn’t touch that arrangement with a 10-foot pole.

Wait for the one you like. Or keep looking.

4

Sure, the basement is probably an illegal unit. That’s why no contracts?

5

I would think that being behind in your rent is not as big a bad mark as you would think. Unfortunate things happen, and if you express an intent to pay the balance, and the new landlord won’t offer you a lease, you may not want to live there anyway. Some contracts actually include language voiding the lease if the signer conceals debt or judgements.

My vote would be to be honest, tell your new landlord that you had agreed to be paid up by Jan 31 but he decided to evict you anyway. If you want, contact a group like Consumer Credit Counseling (or a similar free service) to act as a mediator between you and your old landlord. Make it plain that you want to make right but your old landlord is unfairly breaking the lease. It will also help clean up your credit record (yes, it probably will end up there).