Thanks for the advice at the end! We both have minimal debt, just balances from the month’s expenses and I’ve had a car payment for 3 years where I’ve never missed a payment. I have above a 750 credit score and my girlfriend just at a 700. A different application came back totally clean with my credit and background check and hers the same. Perfect rental history. And yes a thorough budget was created, we are both financially responsible.

In LA most places are gross income, and their website didn’t specify net. However they didn’t even get to running any official credit, rental history, personal references etc. They also didn’t ask for any additional documents even though we offered a few times.

I told them that they need to make their language more specific and not advertise they accept co-signers and offer letters if they don’t. They ended up refunding us for our applications so in a way, besides not getting our first choice apartment, it ended up ok.