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0 pointseyelidlessness6y ago0 comments

Getting a surprise bill for 48 months of interest free credit is still a surprise bill. The landlord in question admits both to deferring out of disinterest in tracking market value (which as a trend is simply not hard work to determine) and to increasing the rent enough to recoup the rent lost by deferring the increase. During this time a tenant has no idea there is a claim on some undisclosed portion of their budget and has every incentive to set their operating budget accordingly.

It is well known that most people can not afford significant sudden expenses. I think the inability of some folks here to recognize how bad a 4 year rent hike can be have the privilege of not being in that group.

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cookiecaper6y ago

Renters generally understand that rent can be changed when the lease runs out and should be braced for the possibility that there will be a moderate increase. If the renter doesn't understand that, they probably haven't rented much before, and they'll learn it the first time their rent increases. If you are lucky enough to go multiple years without any adjustment, you should expect that the landlord will want to correct the differential at some point and budget accordingly.

Note this works both ways. If the market goes down, if no one wants to live there anymore, tenants have a lot of room to negotiate. Vacancies are expensive and the hassle of getting a new tenant is not something many people want to handle even in good conditions.

yojo6y ago

To clarify, when I increase, I bring it up to market rate, not over market rate. So my losses on missed rent are not recouped.

I also contend that not all markets make this easy. I rent a single family home in a town of 4,000. This is not a super liquid market. There are not a lot of good comps - my house is a block from the town’s best park, and walking distance to the small downtown. On the other side, it is a substantially smaller lot than the average house. There are essentially zero houses that are equivalent, and I have to do a lot of digging (including calling up other folks I know that are landlords) to figure it out.

My tenant is not on the verge of financial collapse. They’re a manager at a local business, they probably spend about 20% of their gross pay on rent. They have demonstrated an ability to absorb the bump without issue.