Oh, and we'll be increasing rent 4% a year . . .

The BBQ Pit
1

I’m trying to find an apartment for this June in a college town, (which is a whole rant on its own), and after three months of actively trying to find something that wasn’t a college slum and my girlfriend and I could afford (trying to stay around 1/3 of our combined income, which is pretty close to impossible here, even with two full-time, above-minimum-wage earners), I went and saw a place yesterday that would fit most of our criteria. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a good location, roomy enough, and we could afford it.

I profess my interest to the land-lady, who tells me as we’re finishing the conversation to “not be surprised that we raise the rent about 4% every year. Our expenses keep going up; to operate the building and such.”
Ah, I see! Well, then I will probably be moving out in two years. Because I certainly don’t see a corresponding increase in my income guaranteed every year, and even if I did, there’s no way I’d want to give that money directly to you.

You think I care that your profits might drop slightly on this building that generates $12,000+ a month in gross income for you? Gain some fucking perspective, and don’t try to make me empathize with your need to raise the rent.

I’ve been in my current place for six years, and my landlord has not raised the rent once while I’ve lived here (nor, I think, did he raise it on the girls who lived here for five years before me). It’s going up after I move out, and will still be at a reasonable and very competitive/appealing price for renters.

I’m in my 30s, am a working professional, and can barely afford to live here, with single bedroom apartments going for $1,050+ and most multi-bedroom places going for $600-$800 per bedroom.

I have no room for empathy towards a landlord whose operational costs increase. Cry me a fucking river. I know that there’s no way in hell you would want to live in that apartment.

2

You’re complaining that the landlord warned you in advance that the rent would increase by a small amount a year? Oh the humanity!

3

As renters go, you’ve been extremely fortunate for the past 6 years. Your new potential landlord is also being kind to you, informing you ahead of time of a (rather modest, IME) planned rent increase.

4

ETA: Responding to Ludovic

No, I’m complaining that she thought that I’d have compassion for her reason. And I doubt the sincerity that every year the building costs an additional $500 to maintain than the previous year.

5

That’s SOP. In fact, it was why, at one time everybody in New York City moved on the same day, like a colony of army ants

6

This is one lame Pitting. She can charge whatever she wants and owes you no explanation or even a warning so long as the notice is within the law. And how the fuck do you know if her operating expenses go up that much a year, and the stupidest part of all, why would you think that her expenses in any way should be correlated to your salary increases?

7

Yep, yep, yep. Rather rude of the OP to complain about 1) past good fortune, and 2) a small but kindly favor.

8

Holy shit. I expect an increase every other year at minimum.

9

I haven’t had a rent increase in 6 years and I consider myself very fortunate. Where I live it’s legal to raise the rent 8% a year. It’s also legal to raise the rent 21% if there hasn’t been an increase in more than 2 years.

10

4% is the standard raise in rent around here.

And what business is it of yours what the owners are grossing each month from rent. You have no idea what their expenses are and for all you know, they could be barely getting by after all of their overhead is paid.

In reading your OP, I was certain you were a naive 20 year old looking for his first apartment. I was astonished to see you say you’re in your 30’s.

11

This is the shittiest pitting I’ve seen in ages.

12

It would be a lot more interesting if the landlady was a cracked out potential rapist.

13

Assuming that $500 is an increase of roughly 4%, I don’t doubt it at all. Historically, the average US inflation rate is 3.38%. Currently, the rate is down to 2.7% due to the shitty economy, but it was well over 5% as recently as 2008. cite. A yearly increase of 4% sounds about right to me.

Did you honestly think that prices stay the same year to year?

14

:eek:

15

Oh. Above minimum wage. Not above average. My bad.

16

I really am struggling to understand your logic. How long would you have expected the rent to stay the same? And a $500 increase in costs over a year sounds about right to me. Depending on where you live, anything around a 3-4% increase in rent each year is pretty typical.

17

In my previous apartmen I lived there for 8 years and never had a rent increase. I’ve been at my current rental for 2.5 years and haven’t had a rent increase yet.

18

That happens in Quebec to this day. Not sure it’s based solely on rent comparison shopping.

19

This is all true.

It’s worth pointing out, though, that the rent on an apartment also need not correlate in any particular way with increases in operating expenses. If you are a landlord, and your operating expenses increase while market rates for rent in your area stay the same or decrease, you can try all you like to raise the rent but it won’t work. Similarly, even if your operating expenses stay the same or decrease, if market rates for rentals increase, you can still increase the rent because demand means that someone will take it.

And this is what the OP really needs to realize: if the landlord can, in fact, raise the rent 4% per year and still keep getting tenants, this suggests that the increases are in line with what the market in the Burlington area will support.

Here in Southern California, or at least in our part of San Diego, that hasn’t been the case. We moved into our place (a small, six-condo complex) in 2008, and we haven’t had a rent increase since then. In fact, about two years ago i actually negotiated a rent reduction because i noticed that when someone moved out of the condo next door, it stood vacant for two months and the landlords had to reduce the rent to get a tenant.

Even in stronger markets, some landlords are willing to forego increases for the sake of a stable, reliable, trouble-free renter. My wife and i are desirable tenants. We’re not rich, but we have a steady income and always pay on time; we’re not college kids who have lots of parties, and we are responsible when it comes to things like upkeep, noise, etc. We know for a fact, because they’ve basically told us, that our landlords would prefer to keep us in the building than lose us and have to deal with the possibility of the place not renting immediately, and also with the possibility of getting less desirable tenants.

20

I have a clause in my rental contracts with my tenants that the rent will increase annually based on the CPI for the greater Los Angeles area (the closest area tracked by the Federal Reserve to the units I help manage).

I use the all-items to cover our costs. Arguably I could be using the shelter only numbers I guess, but we didn’t do it that way initially.

And yes, in zero inflation years we don’t raise the rent. We also don’t drop the rent if there is deflation I admit, being evil landlords.