Start with a community that accepts guarantors
The community checks your application against its own rules. If it allows a guarantor for your situation, it may point you to a provider it accepts. A referral doesn’t guarantee approval, and neither does paying an application fee. We keep track of which communities take a guarantor company with a broken lease. When you apply, name us as your locator so we can back you up with the leasing office.
How much income you’ll usually need
From what we see, most communities want income of about 3 times the rent. Some go down to 2.5 times when a guarantor company backs the lease. Say rent is $1,500. That’s $4,500 a month at 3 times, or $3,750 at 2.5 times. On top of that, the provider runs its own check on your income, ID and rental history. We keep track of the income each community asks for with a guarantor, so you don’t have to call around.
Be accurate about the broken lease
Be ready to share the lease end date, what you owe now, any payment or settlement papers and your rental history since. Only send papers when someone asks for them, and only through a website or email you know is real. Tell us about any unpaid collection or eviction record too, so we can point you to communities and providers that work with it.
Read the agreement before you pay
Each provider has its own products and contracts, and each application gets its own decision. To compare them, see OneApp, Liberty Rent and TheGuarantors: A Texas Comparison. Ask for the total price, what’s due up front, any fee for paying in parts and how long coverage lasts. Check whether you still owe a security deposit, too. A guarantor company usually costs about one month’s rent. Refund rules differ. OneApp refunds its fee if you don’t move in. TheGuarantors refunds before move in only if the landlord confirms in writing that the lease was canceled or never signed, and it keeps $100. Liberty Rent doesn’t post a refund rule for its access fee, so ask before you pay. Get the final price and conditions in writing, and don’t assume the fee means there’s no more screening.
Who does the protection cover?
The guarantor covers the community for certain losses, and the agreement spells out which ones. You still owe the rent, any charges for moving out early and everything else in the lease. Ask the provider what you’d have to pay back if it pays a claim, and get the answer in writing.
Finish signing the lease
Ask the leasing office if any approval conditions are still open. Keep the signed provider agreement, the lease and your receipts. A provider approval on its own doesn’t hold the apartment or finish the lease.
Bring our checklist of things to confirm before you pay when you talk with the leasing office or provider. Get your papers ready with our document checklist and screening report help.