We're About to be Kicked Out of Our Apartment. Need Negotiating Tips And Other Advice.

In My Humble Opinion
1

So, we learned last night that the owner of our building wants to divide our large apartment into two smaller ones. We have the option of moving into another one in the building or moving out altogether. Our lease, which we had to either renew or pay a higher monthly rent, doesn’t expire until next May but the owner would kindly overlook that if we should move out early. He wants to get started remodeling ASAP.

I’m on a fixed income. I can’t afford to live on my own so I’ve lived with my sister for nearly a year and a half. Since she pays more in rent than I, I feel she has more of a say in where we live.

My sister doesn’t like to move. I sometimes think she has some borderline hoarding tendencies. Thus, she has a lot more to pack up than I. However, she had to pare down a houseful of stuff before we moved here and she has been able control her tendencies more since living with me. She doesn’t have nearly as much as she once did. But I think she’ll want to opt to stay in the building.

Me, I don’t mind moving so much. I like getting a clean start somewhere new. I also try not to gather up too much stuff, so packing is much easier for me. I’ve never liked this neighborhood, which is on the seedy side. Since I don’t drive, I’m out in it more than she. She doesn’t see what I do. I’d like to move back to our old stomping grounds twenty miles north of here.

We have friends up north. Not so much here. We’re both quiet types and don’t socialize much. I think it would be nice to be amongst folks we’re familiar with. Plus, she works very near there. It would be a five or ten minute trip for her, rather than forty or an hour plus, depending on traffic. She’d considered it before but we wound up here instead.

So, I need to come up with ways of encouraging my sister to move, and to get to what I mentioned in my thread title. Negotiating tips. If I could talk the owner into some nice financial incentives, she might be more accepting of the idea. The problem, as I mentioned, is that we’re both quiet people. Though it’s hard for me to speak up, it’s harder for her. After the manager (a very nice guy, by the way) delivered his news last night and left, she barely spoke a word. And only when I was showing her a few apartments I’d found online. But we’re talking one word sentences.

So I think this will be on me. I’d like to start with getting the owner to spring for a moving truck. We have only one other sister to help us, plus maybe a work friend of my roommate sister. Last time, with the vehicles available to us…well…things could have gone a lot smoother.

And does anyone know how much rent toward a new place I could ask for? A full month’s rent? A half month? Is there anything else I should know? I have to go out for an appointment soon but I think I’ll look into what kind of a tenant’s union this town has. Can the owner even legally ask us to leave before the lease is up? We have a good record living here, never been a problem to anyone. I suspect the answer varies from town to town.

Anyway, if any Dopers has been through this or has any advice, I’m grateful for you sharing your thoughts. I’ll check in when I get back this afternoon. Thanks.

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I’ll add that we’re in Tacoma, Washington, if that helps anyone.

3

You have a lease until May? You have until May before they can do anything to that apartment (leases work both ways).

If he wants to do it now - then you should

a) lock in a good rate on the new apt for 2-3 years
b) he pays moving expenses, including movers to pack and move your stuff

Otherwise - tell him to pound sand until May - which gives you plenty of time to find new digs.

4

IME, leases vary greatly from state to state. There very well may be an out for the landlord to boot you from the apt with a 90 day notice or the like. You really need to read your lease closely to know your options here.

5

From a Tennant’s advocacy group in Washington state:

Unless you’re month to month or in a so called “one way lease”, he can’t make you move or raise your rent until May. Check your lease and read through the links above.

Hope it helps

6

So if so, does that mean the OP could possibly bargain concessions of some kind out of the landlord in exchange for taking action early, or no?

7

The lease says what it says, which gives you some degree of protection, though also of course IRL everything is negotiable…if you don’t have the means to analyze the former or negotiate the latter, and can’t afford to pay a lawyer to do so, you might look into free legal help for tenants in your area…good luck

https://www.cityoftacoma.org/government/city_departments/neighborhood_and_community_services/community_services_division/landlord-tenant_program

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Thanks for the responses, everyone. And thanks, **that_darn_cat, **for looking up that bit of law.

As I was coming back from my appointment, I saw my manager and asked him if I could get something in writing about the whole thing. He said that there really wasn’t much more than what he talked about last night. But then he mentioned that we don’t have to be out before May. They know that can’t be done. Sometimes I don’t hear everything but I’m pretty certain, judging by my sister’s reaction, that he neglected to mention that last night. As I said, he’s a nice guy, so I’m sure it wasn’t intentional.

So, anyway, that gives us some breathing room. However, I’m sure we’d still have to make a decision once the lease is up so we may as well consider our options now, if I can get my sister to talk about them.

Think I’ll keep an eye out in our old stomping grounds, just in case something good comes up.

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Sure. No reason he can’t ask if you’ll consider terminating your lease early. You are under no obligation to agree, however.

One thing you could ask for is assurance that you will get your full security deposit back. Or even get it back early so you can put it on a new pkace.

Good luck!

10

We once bought a rental house, with the intention of moving into it ourselves. There were tenants with a lease that ran for several months beyond when we closed on the house, and we wanted them out. We definitely negotiated with them - I think we settled on a full month’s rent as a buyout of their lease.

They weren’t thrilled about having to move, but they understood, and the extra cash sweetened the deal. You should be able to get at least that if the landlord is asking you to break the lease for his convenience.

11

Thanks for the suggestion, Green Bean. Other than a few nail holes in the walls, which we could patch and even paint, assuming we can get the right color, we should be getting it back anyway. But you never know when renting. A guarantee of getting it back would be a very good idea.

Thanks for your input, too, Athena.

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If they are going to do a full renovation (and it sounds likely), then there is no reason that you shouldn’t get everything back, patch and painting be damned.

13

It absolutely does. The line from the OP “…but the owner would kindly overlook that if we should move out early…” is telling. The owner has obligations under the lease, just as the tenant does, but the owner is hoping to make it look like they’re being magnanimous in “kindly overlooking” the tenant’s obligations.

If the owner does want to start earlier than May*, he’s going to have to make more concessions than that. Moving expenses at least, I’d say, as that’s the extra cost the OP would incur as compared to just continuing to rent the same unit.
*And it makes sense that he does. Where I live, spring is prime moving season, so the owner likely wants to have the renovations done in time to hit that market. So time is worth money to them.

14

Yeah, I wouldn’t necessarily conclude that. I once rented a place during University, and the building manager seemed quite nice. Except that, when we gave written notice that we were moving out, she accepted it without question, and then, a month later, we got a letter from the rental company asserting we hadn’t given enough notice (by two whole days), and as such, we owed an extra month’s rent (this after having already found new places). No mention that this might be a problem when we talked to the manager, and, as it turns out, it was completely wrong based on the law*, but the company thought it could get a few extra bucks, so they gave it a shot.
*“Sixty days” is not actually the same as “Two months”, and the extra day it took the manager to forward it to the company is their problem, not ours.