I am apartment hunting. I notice on some the applications there is the question “have you ever been evicted?”
Truth. I was evicted once. I was 19 years old and it was my first apartment. I shared it with a gaggle of dufusses just as young and immature (and intoxicated)as myself. They all fld the juristiction one by one. I was left holding the bag.
23 years have passed. I was never evicted again. I have been clean for 20 years. I am very responsible. I have filled out rental applications in that time. I honestly cannot remember if I mentioned my eviction in 1984. It wouldn’t have mattered. I had a roomate for 9 years. I had to fill an application, but since he already had the apartment, it was a formality. I rented from friends who did not care. When I was with my wife, we stayed in property owned by her father.
I always want to tell the truth, if for no other reason than it’s easiest to remember. But for some reason, I feel that honesty on this matter might hinder my chances at getting the apartment I want.
What would you do? Would you fess up and explain that it was ancient history? Or would you omit the information, because it was ancient history?
And if omitted, what do you think the probabilty is of the prospective landlord finding out? If you were a landlord, would reject an applicant for omitting?
Nah, I’d leave it out. If you want the place, why give the LL an excuse to not rent to you, no matter how ridiculous it would be. You’ve clearly shown you’re responsible with renting. Why should a black mark on your record give someone an excuse to think you might not be just as qualified to rent as anyone else. And 20 years ago? There’s no way anyone’s going to turn up that info.
How would they find out. Where you evicted through a legal path or just told to get out.
I was evicted under almost the same circumstances when I first moved out around 15 years ago. I’ve rented for all the time after and never gave a LL one bit of trouble. Let it die, forget about it. You’re a different person now. Why give someone the chance to judge a kid when the adult is now there.
23 years ago? I work in rental property management, and I would not give a rat’s ass about what happened 23 years ago!
I think you could get away with not listing it. It probably wasn’t in your name or even in the state when you now live, and if it does come up, you were an immature college kid. You could flat out lie and claim you had left the apartment and didn’t know about the eviction.
Ditto. My property managers care about your current living arrangement, your previous one, and maybe if you’ve lived at those two for short periods, another previous rental reference. But an eviction 23 years ago would not be considered. We would give you the benefit of believing you had grown up some since then!
I have trouble sometimes getting a reference from a landlord only a year or two years ago in a potential tenant’s rental history. The chances of a property management firm or independent landlord successfully tracking down another landlord from 23 years ago is pretty slim.
spooje, you know as well as I do that there is textbook “rigorous honesty in all of our affairs” and there is the real world which must be lived in. Tough call.
Honestly - Spooje, if you were going to be comfortable with not answering this question truthfully, you wouldn’t be asking us for our advice. The truth is far easier to remember than some poor substitute, and the consensus in this thread from People Who Know Things seems to be that the prospective landlord simply won’t care, especially if you offer an explanation. And if he does care - well, that’s regrettable, but he’s entitled to know, and make his decision based upon that knowledge.
To be blunt - an honestly completed application is as much a prerequisite for getting the apartment you want as a deposit paid on-time and in full. The only difference is that, yes, you probably won’t get caught if you aren’t honest on the application. But, so far as you know, the landlord is an honest businessman/businesswoman. It would be a shame to treat him/her less than entirely honestly.
Here’s another thing to consider. If a landlord is going to refuse to rent to you because of an incident which happened 23 years ago, is he the sort of person you want as a landlord? I can understand how it bothers you and I’d probably cross my fingers, write it down with a note that it happened 23 years ago, and hope for the best if I were in your position, but I would hope it wouldn’t make that much of a difference.
I’d say if it bothers you to be dishonest about it, then tell the truth. But whoever said upthread that the statute of limitations is past, is correct. So if it doesn’t bother you, I’d have no problem with that, either (IANYMoralAdviser).
But speaking as a rental property owner, I personally would:
A, appreciate your honesty
B, care a hell of a lot more about your recent rental history. In fact, we only ask about the past two years. If a prospective tenant can show us a good rental history for the past two years, we’ll gladly waive the security deposit for them (our properties are in a very poor area).
