I’m starting to believe that profit from tenants is not the goal anymore, at least not for the type of investor focused more on loans and tax write-offs than maintenance or amenities:
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It really does feel like we’re at a “Fall of Rome” scenario for Neoliberalism and the Western Governments and it does feel like the rental market will be where the collapse starts. At present my daughter, her partner and their three year old are facing homelessness because they are being evicted. What did they do wrong? Nothing. The roof on their house needs replacing, the landlord has had 20 years of income from it but doesn’t want to pay to fix it so is evicting them to sell it on. And, of course, prices are so high the only people who can afford to buy… are other fucking landlords.
The Uk government promised to make no fault evictions illegal. It hasn’t happened yet.
Many MPs in the government are landlords.
I’d like to suggest gilloutines are the answer but you know hedge funds would just buy shares in wood, blades and rope.
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Yah I had a landlord claim I broke the lock on the way out and charged me $500 for it. Obviously I didn’t “break the lock” (whatever that even means). She just wanted me to pay to change them for the next tenant. It also does not cost $500 to change a lock, but she knew that was the exact amount that she could ask that was just below the threshold where someone will bother going to small claims court for. Since it was $500 on a $3500 deposit, I considered it the cost of never having to see that horrible woman again.
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I’ve seen apartment complex reviews where former tenants posted warnings that people will never get their security deposits back because of practices like this. It sounds worse than returning a leased car! Those landlords definitely use their knowledge of court procedures against renters in those situations, and it’s worse when they create the laws.
Same in my state [PA]. There have been past scandals involving proposed legislation for aid to benefit themselves/landlords, stalling on providing rent relief (refusing to allocate funding for existing programs), or fighting any court actions that extended leniency to tenants behind on their rent. Philadelphia struggled with blight for decades, because some building owners found ways to delay efforts to collect taxes, fines, or fees associated with rundown properties. It was a slumlord’s dream for those who never did maintenance for renters, and it allowed some to flip properties for a lot of profit while affordable housing goals were not met.
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… if society were serious about the “security deposit” concept it would be an escrow account that owners would have to go to court to get at
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You’re saying the same kind of thing I tell people. At work, we had this “investment club” where a few of us used to have lunch and talk investment stuff. As new people joined, the hottest topic was always “real estate investing”. People, newbs, would want to buy a condo or house and rent it out. I started to ask these fledgling “real estate investors” if they’re talking investing in real estate, or becoming a landlord, because those are two very different things. If the former, then I would suggest REITs, for example. If the latter, well, I left them scratching their heads after describing what that means.
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I’m in the same situation. At one point I had three rentals, now down to one (one being a former personal residence I couldn’t sell at the time). Each one rented out to just about cover upkeep costs. Keeping the rent increases in step with minor costs like maintenance fee increases.
All with the idea that although it was costing me money out of pocket, it was less than what the tenant was putting into the property. Treating it like a 401K with a huge match on my money out in. The money made on the two I sold being based on appreciation. Mostly by being able to keep a tenant there continuously for as long as possible to pay down mortgages. As opposed to bleeding them dry and constantly getting new people in. Predatory landlording is a recipe for legal trouble and having the property trashed.
Your idea works, I’ve made money renting way you do. It’s ethical and generates good will. But it requires having a decent cash reserve and/or income from elsewhere.
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So much this. Trying to get a security deposit back from a landlord is such a horrible power imbalance. As if landlords don’t already have too much power, here’s this one last “fuck you” moment where you have left the apartment, have zero leverage and are completely at the mercy of this person to give you your money back.
I had one landlord in LA who tried to simply ignore me when it came time to get the deposit back. They have 30 days to return it and on day 31 I called a lawyer, got them to write a letter, and suddenly my deposit came back (minus “cleaning fees” despite my leaving that place clean enough to do surgery in).
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