My apartment complex has fozen all rent hikes because of the economy. 
WOOT!
Clouds, silver linings & all that. 
Sweet!
Congratulations. Let’s hope more of that goes around.
Is your landlord a unicorn? The-boy-I-like-in-Winnipeg’s evil landlord is raising his rent to a degree that would normally be illegal (there’s a loophole in this case). The boy is on disability, on which he barely makes enough to eat, let alone afford a $100 rent increase.
Congratulations, Daddypants. I’m getting an $83 concession on my monthly rent under my current lease, but I doubt that I’ll be getting a similar deal when it’s time for me to renew. I’m just hoping the base rent doesn’t go up!
Similarly, the board of directors of my condo complex has voted to decrease the monthly dues because of the current economic situation. They want to do a little bit to ease the burden on the homeowners. (One of the directors said this to me the other day.)
Ed
The trailer park I live in (I’m actually in a cabin, not a trailer, but they bought the cabins years ago and manage them) did the same thing. I got the letter right before Christmas. I was quite pleased.
I do wish they hadn’t sent the letters certified, though. That was a scare. Very little good news comes through certified mail!
matt_mcl, isn’t there some sort of renter’s board or something you can talk to? That sucks.
That’s great news, but also kind of shocking that the landlord would realize that holding everyone steady in rent is likely more lucrative than raising rents and dealing with potential ensuing evictions.
At our complex the rent went DOWN a hundred bucks a month and we got a free month’s rent when we resigned this month.
I’ve never heard of rent going down. Like, ever.
Honestly though it was the deciding factor in whether or not we should stay here…it’s a great complex and it’s got an unbeatable location but it’s about $250 bucks more a month than other relatively close places.
But I hate moving so when they dropped the rent and we got January free, we decided to be lazy and stay.
I wish we were doing the same. 
I am sending out rent increase notices for suites in all the apartment buildings we manage. I have about 25 to do this month, 36 next month, and so on.
You know what? I hate it. I really hate it when I’m sending out an increase for a tenant who’s been in place since 1992 and has never caused us any issues. I wish I had the power to suspend those increases.
The economic downturn hasn’t really hit Victoria, BC so far yet, other than a real estate and construction slowdown, though, and increases are capped at 3.7% by the government.
Still, I hate sending them out. I’m sorry.
Back in November I went in to look at an apartment. I decided I liked it and put in my deposit, but I never got around to signing the lease until mid-December. By that time, the rent was $13 cheaper than what I’d been told when I put in the deposit!
We’ve got condo reconstruction going on, but I was surprised that they only hiked us a couple bucks this year as opposed to other years that had me sucking air when I opened the envelope.