Woof, that’s rough.

First, you might talk to your siblings. I don’t know how positive your relationship with them but if they are expecting to inherit the house there is nothing criminal about not following your father’s wishes and just… not selling the house. So long as they don’t contest the issue, you might be fine.

Its gonna be anxiety inducing and exhausting but starting out now and getting a list of advertisements about rental places and slowly working through it getting the details. I know out in the woods you can find old people with rental properties who pretty much just do handshake deals, no paperwork, no background check, no lease agreement… which can be pretty sketchy but might be survivable.

You may be hard pressed to find an apartment owned by a corp or large management company under those conditions. Smaller individual landlords are sometimes more amenable to these circumstances though.

Stop blowing all your sorosbux on hexbear gold.

If you stand to inherit 5-6 figures and your plan is “guess I’ll pay rent until this runs out”, you should at least consider if you can use that money to make a property purchase instead. There’s all sorts of low income homebuyer assistance programs in blue states like MD. You could put $30k down on a house, a local gov/nonprofit will match it with a grant or 0% loan, and you get to live in your own home.

A comrade here posted about how they’re a property manager for section 8 housing and some of their clients only pay $30/month in rent. The new deal and great society haven’t been entirely gutted yet, there are few and far between assistance programs out there.

Capitalism is an awful demon and predator that only knows how to sink its fangs into bank accounts. Try to get a step ahead of it.

The situation sucks, I hope you’re doing well and that you can land on your feet.

A lot of places won’t take a big up front payment, but instead of a credit check they’ll take the first/last month payments and a security deposit (usually another month) and assume you’re good if you can make that initial payment (usually about three months’ rent). A private landlord will definitely be more likely to accept a private arrangement like a big up front payment though.

Credit checks are a real thing but IMPORTANT: never pay a fee before you have seen the place in person, that is a super common scam that people run (sometimes called a listing fee or a hold fee).

Another thing: consider getting experience renting a room before renting a place. Unless you have a lot of stuff you can usually get in for cheaper and not have to worry about a big process since you’ll be renting directly from the person who lives in the house already. You can list the room renter as a reference when you move up to a full place too because some rental units require references and by the sound of things you won’t be able to use family members. A great place to look if you have a car is rural areas - I used to rent a detached room on a ranch and I pretty much had full privacy even though it was somebody else’s house. I remember that place also allowed pets which most room rentals will not, so looking for a deal like that (again, assuming you can swing the transportation that comes with it) is ideal IMO.

One more thing: getting an inheritance takes time. selling a house/getting evicted also takes time. Do not assume that you’ll have the inheritance in your account on the day the locks get changed and/or the cops show up to enforce an eviction order - but ALSO do not assume that the house’s current owner has carte blanch to do those things whenever they want and that you have no recourse. Know your rights so that if your family (likely not experienced landlords with knowledge of eviction law) try to violate them you can defend yourself. In fact something I just learned while fact checking this post is that changing the locks without an eviction order is super illegal, so take the time to arm yourself with knowledge of your city/state/country’s laws so that you’re not helpless if this situation arises.

this comes up kind of often here

like others have said, in most places there are certainly landlords who are pretty easy to convince

in your situation, I’d use a screenshot of the bank account with money in it showing that you have a lot of cash on hand, offer to pay 2-3 months rent in advance in addition to the deposit (paying a year as you suggested is too much, you can get away with less and if it turns out the housing situation is toxic or dangerous you will be out of that money and forced to move anyway) so maybe offer just a couple months up front

most houses I’ve rented didn’t ask for credit score but many do, you should probably get a credit card or two now that has no annual fees and just open them up and buy some small things on it every month and pay it on time so there is no interest. this is a pretty low risk way to build credit in case it does become an obstacle later.

have you ever worked? you could stretch an outdated resume into the present and just act like you are working but also when you have all that money in the bank you can just say you are a self employed free lancer of whatever seems reasonable (landscaping, house painting, video editing, etc) and that the money comes from that. self employed people don’t get pay stubs, so the bank account with money is more or less all the proof you need aside from maybe a signed written statement explaining the situation

in any situation where you are twisting the truth (or flat out lying) just be prepared to stick to your story and tell it confidently and ideally have a friend or two as “client references” who will lie on the phone about the work you did for them. “I am a free lancer doing x, I don’t have pay stubs but here is proof that I have money in the bank (bank account screenshot with private info redacted). If it helps I am happy to pay 2 or 3 months in advance in addition to the deposit because I really love this place and want to live here.”

good luck, this is a shitty situation and it might be hard to move on now but once you are on the other side things will be better

Years ago, I had to give a couple recent pay stubs and pass a credit check. If you had enough money in an account for like a year or whatever, that might slide, but I bet the credit check would still be required. Small landlords could be more lax, but have their own set of nightmares.

If you can pay up front I think that would be enough to entice a landlord to sign something with you but I think that would put you in a bad position if there’s some issue with the place and you need your money back

I assume your siblings… would do all that? They can’t be convinced to like, not? :/

It really depends on where you’re located and what kind of place you’re trying to rent. My current spot didn’t even ask for proof of income, they just asked how much I make and that was it. But some place fancier or with a more corporate landlord, e.g. a rental agency, would definitely want pay stubs. I’d say look for those small private renters, bc even though those landlords will be the most power tripping petty tyrants of them all, they also tend not to have the most restrictive or formal processes. Should also note I live out in the sticks of the US south so I’m sure the experience is much different elsewhere.

Also, I am sorry your dad is acting cruelly towards you. It is an incredibly hard time to be getting on your feet and you deserve some compassion and patience around that. I have adult siblings who live with my parents, and they work but just can’t afford housing in that area, so gaining real independence hasn’t been feasible for them. I don’t know your circumstances but I wish you luck in finding stability and in leading the life you desire for yourself.

It kinda depends, some places will probably out right reject you with no income but others will be fine with it provided you can prove you have money for rent. They might up the deposit though.

A few years ago a comrade moved into town here and paid a full year of rent upfront, didn’t have an issue with it.

We’re also working on community housing projects here, we’ll see where that goes.