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Before You Lease a New House, Check the Crime Rates!

By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

Sometimes people decide that, as a part of their new post-Chapter 7 Bankruptcy retirement plan, they'll move out of their current house, which has a payment of $5,000 a month.

And is a quarter of a million dollars underwater.

If they only have one mortgage, that may be something they can just walk away from, because of the Arizona Anti-Deficiency Statute; although you probably want to be certain before you walk away from a big ol' debt like that!

You would also want to be certain that you don't need that $5,000 per month mortgage payment to pass the dreaded Means Test in Arizona, prior to filing a bankruptcy in Arizona!

But I digress.

See, people who have lived in a gated community for 17 years sometimes forget what it's like here in the outside world. I'm told, for instance, that crime exists here in the outside world.

And the trauma that a family experiences when it moves is substantial, but it's nothing like the trauma that a family experiences when mom and dad realize that the reason the new house rented for such a great price had to do with the small-arms fire that they could hear after sundown.

Note: view the potential new rental house after sundown, right? And after sundown on Saturday, right?

In addition, it's probably a good idea to visit with all the adjacent prospective neighbors, just because.

Use every resource you can find to see what the crime rate in that neighborhood looks like, because you don't want to have to move again, breaking a lease on which you will be sued, if the crime rate is very high. Use crime reports, for instance. And don't stop there!

A friend of mine called me once and said, "There was a noise a little like a wasp, and then there was a bullet hole through the house. Every room. Do you think we could break the lease?"

I said, "Who cares? Are you nuts??? Get your wife and children out of there TODAY, RIGHT NOW, and we'll talk about legal consequences later!!!"

See, legal consequences are troublesome; extra holes in your family members are...downright bad, you know?

Full post as published by Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney Blog on December 11, 2010 (boomark / email).