One of the Wolves

Here’s the quick scoop: The people leasing the $2000 apartment don’t want to give up their lease, so that apartment is out of the picture. The $1895 apartment is still up for grabs, but, because of the crazy landlord, I’ve spent the last two days getting the needed information.

Most of that information was hard to get — either physically hard to get, or stressful for those involved — but thankfully, we did it. This gave us everything we needed to submit an application, and allowed the management company start processing it. For those who don’t know, the management company works for the landlord, and pre-screens applicants before handing information over.

During the management company’s processing, one of their duties is to run both mine and my guarantor’s credit. My guarantor’s credit checked out fine, but mine came up saying I have a criminal record.

According to the credit reporting agency used by the management company, I have a criminal record for not paying a $43 moving violation back in 2001.

I drove in the bike lane. I admit it. About a month after I got my driver’s license, I drove in the bike lane to pass a couple cars that were in front of me. I got caught by a motorcycle cop, went to court and plead guilty. I payed the fine in cash.

My broker called up the Multnomah County Circuit Court, and was able to receive public records stating that not only was I pulled over, but I plead guilty and paid the fine in full. The records showed the case as being “closed,” and showed it never went to judgment. Why would this show up on my credit report? Why would it show up as a criminal violation?

I haven’t gotten that resolved yet, but the records we received from Multnomah County should be enough to convince the landlords that there was an error. Although I can’t say definitively that it’ll work, it looks like things are going to work out.

As a side note: http://www.freecreditreport.com does not list a criminal record on my credit report. According to FreeCreditReport.com, I have “0 items on my public record.” This includes “bankruptcy records, court records, tax liens and monetary judgments.”

So — all we can do now is wait. Due to some funky situation with the landlord, our application won’t be looked at until Monday. The management company assured us that we’re the first in line for the apartment, but due to the landlord’s schedule, we have to wait over the weekend.

As a good faith judgment, and to show that we are truly serious about the apartment, we submitted the certified checks needed to actually lease the apartment. From what I’m told, this will take the apartment off of the market and prevent the management company from showing it to anyone else.

My mom and my aunt left New York today (now Day 8), and I had to move out of the vacation rental apartment. Right now, I’m sitting in a coffee shop trying to get a hold of a friend. Although I won’t have a place of my own to stay, I do have a friend who lives right across the river who will let me crash for a couple days.

Things look like they’ll turn out alright. If I don’t get this apartment, at least I don’t have to go through the whole process again.

New York