Why Open Balance Evictions Are the Hardest to Place
Still owe your old landlord money from an eviction? Then you’re in the toughest spot in Texas rental screening. Our team has spent 5+ combined years placing renters with evictions, and open balance files are still the ones that take the most work.
Most Class A luxury properties we work with deny you automatically. Many mid market companies want the balance paid before they’ll even look at your file by hand. Screening software like SafeRent flags the open balance before a leasing agent ever sees your application.
From what we see, most “eviction friendly” lists on Google won’t help much here. They’re built for easier cases.
What tends to work when you have an open balance:
- Small private owners who do their own screening in house
- Older mid market properties where the property manager makes the call
- Guarantor backed applications where a third party takes on your risk
- Deposit alternative products that make the double deposit easier to cover
We use all four. Here's how each one works.
Is Your Balance Still With the Landlord or in Collections?
Your balance sits in one of two places, and each one changes which properties we can send you to. If a collection agency has contacted you about it, it's most likely in collections.
Still with the landlord (your old apartment community holds the debt and hasn't sold it): You can sometimes negotiate with them directly. Some landlords will take a partial payment and give you a letter saying the debt is “satisfied” in full. Others won’t. Get any settlement in writing, and ask the property to update your rental history with whichever screening companies it reports to.
In collections (the landlord sold the debt or handed it to a collection agency): You'll usually deal with the collector now, not your old landlord. Negotiating with the collector can lower the amount, but the eviction filing itself stays in the JP court’s records. In Texas, court records are open to the public by default. Judges rarely seal them, and no Texas law lets you expunge an eviction.
We’re not attorneys. For help with the debt or a settlement, try TexasLawHelp.org or a local legal aid office.
The debt can show up separately on your credit report too, for 7 years under the FCRA. That clock starts 180 days after you first fell behind. From what we see, a lot of properties treat a balance in collections differently from one still owed to the landlord. Sometimes that helps you and sometimes it doesn’t, so we keep track of which properties do what.
Don’t know where your balance stands? We help you check before you apply. Our guide on how to check your eviction history walks you through pulling your own file.
Which Texas Apartments Accept Unpaid Eviction Balances
Small private owners
For open balance cases, we usually look first at independent owners with 1 to 20 properties who do their own screening. These are usually garden style complexes and older mid rise communities. The property manager often runs background checks by hand instead of through SafeRent or Yardi.
We've found them in every Texas metro, mostly in older areas. Think Oak Cliff in Dallas, Haltom City next to Fort Worth, and Leon Valley on San Antonio’s northwest side. Older East Austin and Houston’s Greenspoint and Spring Branch are on the list too.
Class B and older mid market
From what we see, some Class B mid market properties look at open balances one file at a time. That includes some managed by Willow Bridge, RPM Living, and Greystar. Strong current income and a guarantor can help a lot there. It gets trickier when a big management company runs every property through the same screening setup, like Yardi’s ScreeningWorks Pro. We keep track of which of those properties still make their own calls.
Communities that partner with a guarantor
We see OneApp and Liberty Rent at a lot of Texas mid market and Class B properties. If the community you want uses one of these programs, the guarantor can sometimes get you past an open balance.
What It Really Costs to Move In With an Open Balance
Say your rent is $1,500 a month. Average rents in our cities run about $1,260 to $1,650 a month (RentCafe, September 2026). With an open eviction balance, here's what to budget:
- Application fees: usually $50 to $85 per adult at each property (HelloData’s 2025 Texas fee data). We help you apply at fewer places
- Risk fee: often required for open balances. In the files we see, it runs $300 to $500
- Security deposit: with an eviction, a conditional approval often comes with a bigger deposit, up to two months’ rent. We figure the full two months here ($3,000)
- First month’s rent: $1,500
- Admin or move in fee: about $100, the Texas average per HelloData (up to $250 in central Austin)
- Guarantor fee (if used): varies by product. Liberty Rent charges $35 to apply (refunded if you’re not approved). If you’re approved, its one time fee is usually one month’s rent, or 50% to 125% of it at properties that use its PrecisePrice
On those numbers, the realistic total to move in with an open balance is about $4,950 to $5,200. Add a guarantor like Liberty Rent, and it can run up to about $7,100. That’s the honest number. Be careful with any promise that you’ll get in with a standard deposit and no risk fee.
How We Place Renters With Unpaid Balances
Open balance cases take more legwork than most, so here's how we handle them:
- Prescreening call: Before we recommend any properties, we go over your file with you. We talk through how old the eviction is and the exact balance. Then we look at whether it’s still with the landlord or in collections, and how the JP court case ended.
- Past denials: We look at whether any big management company has already run your file through SafeRent, Yardi, or TransUnion and denied you. If so, we usually skip that company’s other properties. We often see them deny you there too. Working out where to send you instead is our job.
- Policy notes: We go through our notes on each property's open balance policy, built from our placements and what properties have told us.
- Guarantor plan: If a guarantor makes sense for your file, we point you to properties we've seen work with Liberty Rent or OneApp. You can’t apply to either one on your own. The invite comes from a property that partners with them, after it denies you or gives you a conditional approval.
- Honest answers: If your realistic options are 3 properties in Katy or 4 in Haltom City, we tell you. False hope wastes your time and money.
| Feature | Typical Apartment Locator | Working With Our Team |
|---|---|---|
| Takes open balance cases | Some do | Regularly |
| Where policy info comes from | Varies by locator | Our placement notes and what properties have told us |
| Screening systems we work with | Varies by locator | SafeRent, TransUnion, Yardi ScreeningWorks Pro |
| Guarantor help | Some offer it | OneApp and Liberty Rent |
| Cost to renter | Varies | 100% free, the property pays us |
When Paying Off the Balance Is the Better Move
If you have the cash, paying off the balance can open up a lot more options. Once it’s paid, we've often helped clients get into Class B and some Class A properties that would have denied them outright. See our balance paid guide.
If paying it off isn’t realistic, guarantor products and small private owners are your best bet. Already been denied somewhere? Ask the property for the adverse action notice. It names the screening company that flagged your file, and we can use that to point you to places more likely to fit.
To see who may approve open balance cases in your target city, fill out the form above. We usually reply during weekday business hours. A short list of realistic options can take 24 to 48 hours on weekdays.
