As some of you know I was going to move from my apartment into a studio. I thought it was a sure thing; I talked to the assistant manager, I gave them all my paperwork and they showed me the room. The lady said to wait to hear from her.
I called twice and she said all my pay stubs and bank statements were sent into the ‘compliance department’ who makes the final decision whether I’m approved or not. She told me all my paperwork looked good. In the meantime I got three emails saying they checked my credit history and did a criminal background check on me and I passed both. And they sent three pages of terms and conditions to moving in.
I hadn’t heard from the assistant manager all week so I called her Friday after work. She told me she was just getting ready to call me (I don’t know if that was true or not) but she said the compliance department had NOT approved me. She said the reason they turned me down was because I didn’t meet the income requirements.
I told her I was surprised, I didn’t know how that could be. She told me the rent was $786 and the income requirement was I had to have a minimum income of at least 1.75 % of the rent. I asked her how much that is and she couldn’t tell me so I figured it out on google calculator while she was on the phone. $786 x 1.75 is a little more than $1300. I told her “But I make that easily, I get $1270 from SSDI and I net about $650 from job.” She just kept repeating , “Well, the compliance team doesn’t think you meet the income requirements.” She wouldn’t admit I made enough, she danced around it and kept saying, “Well the compliance team doesn’t think you meet the requirements and they make the final decision.”
I finally asked her if she would stop saying that and admit to me I made the requirements. So we went back and forth for awhile. I don’t think I yelled but I raised my voice a little and she said she’ll talk to the manager about it. I told her I think that someone is screwing me.
So that’s where it stands, I won’t hear back from them until Monday and it’s all I can think about now. While I was talking to her I started wondering if it was her that was screwing me but I don’t really know. When we met a couple of weeks ago she was friendly and I thought she liked me. Now this. I’m really bugged by this, I bought $200 worth of furniture in anticipation of moving in. Now it looks like I’ll have to stay here with the psycho neighbor and the other guy messing with me.
Keep a calm head. I hope you can sort it. If not, where you are isn’t bad. You have a roof over your head. I’m sorry , I understand how disappointed you must be right now.
Sorry you’re going through this. It’s good you did the income calculation while you were on the phone and conveyed that information to the assistant manager. Hopefully, she accurately forwards on the information to the manager. I wonder if maybe they just made a mistake (for example if they forgot to.include the income from your job). If so, hopefully that should be easily corrected on their end.
If you can appeal the decision, maybe a copy of your performance review from work may help. Youre nearing retirement age and the compliance team may be expecting you to lose that income fairly soon. I dont know if US citizens recieve government pension and disability or just one. All that factors in.
I get income from my job that puts me above the minimum income requirement by several hundred dollars. You could be right though, maybe they gave the room to someone else.
Seems odd that the apartment is out of reach for a standard ssdi amount. Seems like they could price the apartment less than ten percent lower than they have it and let someone on disability have a home.
Also another factor is you already have a place, but I doubt they are being so considerate to someone else who doesnt have one.
The housing market is tough, keep looking and have alternatives handy. You already made up your mind to live on your own. I would be boiling in anger and frustration.