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I need a land lord's opinion, would you accept a tenant with bad credit if they prepaid their lease in full and showed proof of funds?

So I'm trying to get away from my parents, quietly. My parents take a very authoritative stance on my life and it's very toxic to me mentally and socially. I have very bad credit (sub 500) unfortunately due to a large amount of medical bills I incurred before I was even 18 and also due to an overall limited credit history. 

I don't want to cosign with my parents as that would completely defeat the purpose but thankfully I've come into some fortune that I could easily prepay a 1 year lease many times over. I know that sounds unlikely but just go with it for the sake of the question, my case is an unusual one. 

Yes I could just buy a house, which I plan to do but I want to move across the country and I need to move out first. It'd be easier having a place to easily transport all my belongings to before making the big move so I can have time to move back and forth by myself 

What would be your thoughts on this? A guy comes to you, looking to rent, has bad credit but gives you bank statements showing he has money and offers to pay the entirety of his lease right then and there. Would you accept? 

Update:

A lot of people seem to say the poor credit story doesn't make sense. What happened was the hospitals I was in waited until AFTER I turned 18 to report owed bills to credit unions, that's how they did it. I was 17 at the time so they simply just waited 

17 Answers

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  • 4 months ago

    I had a tenant once who had no credit,  but paid 1 year's rent in advance, in cash.   I didn't care what his credit rating was.

  • Anonymous
    4 months ago

    Considering I did this myself once, I don't agree with people saying it won't happen.  However, not all landlords are equal.  A large apt complex is not going to bend their rules about credit rating and salary.  Also, many won't even allow people under 21.

    However, if you rent a condo from an individual owner (that's what I did) it's very different.  I did this but I only offered 6 months.  I pointed out to him that in 6 months, a lot of people might lose their job entirely.  Also, this is bad money management.  You could be earning interest on 6 months worth of rent.  

    The other option is look at rooms in shared houses.  These tend to be easier to get into, although if I gave someone 6-12 months worth of rent, I'd want the landlord living in the home.  Some places don't have this.

  • garry
    Lv 6
    4 months ago

    first you say payed of the lease , then you said showed proof he has the money , what is it one or the other , prepaying all your rent is good , but if you showed proof means you have the money, big difference in prepaying and actually having the money now .very fishy yo me .

  • 4 months ago

    I can't think of any landlord not accepting a pre-paid lease under these circumstances. 

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  • 4 months ago

    I am not buying your story here.

    First of all, what you're saying isn't all that sensible. You can't be held responsible for medical bills you incurred before you were a legal adult. Those will be your parents' responsibility, not yours. Your credit history may be short, but I guarantee you're not paying those medical bills yourself. If you have cash, as you say, then you can certainly pay for a storage unit somewhere to transport your stuff, and then relocate to a place where you could stay in a short-term hotel-type rental unit to get yourself established. I think you're trolling. 

  • 4 months ago

    I probably wouldn't. It sort of has 'drug dealer' written all over it.  A year's rent in my pocket isn't worth having the government seize my property.

  • R P
    Lv 7
    4 months ago

    No, I would not.   

    Offering that much pre-paid rent is a huge red flag.  I would wonder why you are offering so much money when your credit is horrible. Not only that, but managing that much prepaid rent could be an accounting nightmare.

    Also, you need to find out if your state's laws allow your landlord to accept that much prepaid rent.

    Source(s): FL landlord
  • 4 months ago

    If I was a landlord - which I'm not, I would probably not rent to you.

    I don't know the laws about holding rent money paid in advance. Am I required to put the money in an interest bearing account? What if you leave before the lease expires - do I have to track you down and return the unused portion of your rent? I don't want to get myself into a scenario where I have additional legal obligations or I accidentally violate some technicality all because I tried to do you a favor.

    There's also the issue if I decide I want to evict you before the lease is up for some other violation - maybe you're running a drug lab or maybe you have unauthorized tenants living with you. I don't want the fact that you already paid rent getting in the way of my legal ability to kick you out and find a better tenant if you're violating the lease.

    I also don't want the responsibility of managing your money and withdrawing your rent every month. I want a tenant who manages their own money and pays me on time when the rent is due.

    Then there's the question of damage or rent beyond the lease period. What happens if you leave the place with tons of damage - are you going to pay the debt you legally owe me for repairs or are you going to skip out on that like you did the medical bills? Or what if you refuse to leave at the end of the lease but you don't pay the ongoing rent?

    There are just too may ways this can work against the landlord, so its actually not desirable to get paid a year in advance. I'd deny your application and wait for a better qualified tenant.

  • 4 months ago

    Repair your credit.  You cannot be held accountable for stuff prior to turning 18.  That stuff can all be wiped off,.  

  • ?
    Lv 7
    4 months ago

    If you have bad credit then the only landlords that will want you are the ones that don't check credit at all but they are the sort that deal with bad tenants themselves and will go hard on tenants who don't pay, no one does anything about them even though there's supposed to be tenant rights. If you think you aren't going to mess up then look at local advertising for them, they don't use agencies. They won't want you to pay the whole lease at once but they just snap your legs if you fall behind, or something like that, you know, they don't mess about with due process.

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