Tenant Felony Record

By Ques

I have a felony background. In 1998, I was accused of aggravated battery on a police officer. It happened when I was at a New Yrs eve party and e’thing got out of control. An officer was struck. He coulnd’t point out who did it, so e’one at the party was arrested. I didn’t have any money for a lawyer, so, I was stuck with the freaking case to hunt me for the rest of my life. That was 10 yrs ago. Recently, I tried to rent an apartment from a managment and my application was rejected. I also have a eviction on my record but it’s still pending I guess b’c I’m paying the court costs. The case never made it to the courts. But, it does show on my credit report. And I’m still living in the unit. I tried to rent an apartment from a mgmt comp but was rejected. I was told b’c of my background. How can I go about getting the felony expunged? or sealed? Can this be done online? When I was rejected by the new mgmt company. I was really upset but then I u’stand if they don’t want to rent to tenants with  a felony or has had a previous eviction. If I can show proof (like a letter from my current landlord), bldg can’t that help get me into another apartment? I’ve had the felony for 10 yrs now. Right after I did my time in jail. I found a job working in the pharmacy and with a background you can’t get a pharmacy license but I was able to obtain one. Plus I’ve been on my job for 5 yrs now. How come the mgmt comp couldn’t look at that and approve my rental application? I’ve talked to other tenants that rent from the same company I’m trying to rent from and they have backgrounds and evictions on their credit reports! But, why was I singled out! How can I report the mgmt comp and re’cv some type of justice? I know there should be some type of service that can go and do an audit on the company and check their records right? I just feel like I’ve been cheated or s’thing. I mean, I really liked this apartment and had my hopes up on getting the freaking thing and BOOM! I was told “sorry but we can’t process your application”. I was mainly upset b’c I’m tired of spending money for credit and application fees! I’ve even tried several times to call and speak with the manager. but, she’s not available. I’ve even left my number for her to call me back but she won’t return my calls. What a lamer!

Edited on: Thursday, September 4th, 2008 8:20 pm

2 Responses to “Tenant Felony Record”

My response: (We welcome stories, examples, explanations, answers and a touch of your personality)
 

Richard

September 6th, 2008 7:52 am

The advice I can give you is to be upfront about your history. When I process rental applications that claim to have a clean history, but when we pull a background report we find that there are a few items that were never reported on the application- we automatically decline them. On the other hand, when an applicant explains the situation to us before hand and is completely honest, we give them some grace. At the property I work at, we can’t and won’t rent to convicted felons, but we do occasionally make exceptions for evictions. Be up front and honest about your history, that is the best policy.


RentAttorney

September 8th, 2008 6:28 am

You could try showing a letter from your previous landlord, but most likely the apartment complex you want to rent fro will not change their decision. Regardless of what you say the situation was or is, a record showing “Aggrevated Battery on a police office” is one of the worst charges you can have. You should consider hiring a criminal attorney to see if they can get the record expunged. However, even when the record is expunged it may show up on other landlord / tenant screening systems and databases. As for the eviction, typically that will only be attached to a credit report after a judgement has been made. So, unfortunetly due to some poor choices you now have to deal with the consequences. Your best bet, is to find another rental. No matter what you do or so, you will not convince the manager to rent to you– they probably have other tenants with clean history that want to rent the unit. Why would they turn someone down with a clean record? It doesn’t make sense, you are a bigger risk to them.


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