Owner of Phoenix apartment building serves eviction notices to every tenant so he can turn their homes into unlicensed hotel rooms

[Uniq]

Your first month’s rent is rent that you otherwise would have had to spend on your old apartment. You’re not double paying it.
You should get your security deposit back from your old apartment when you move out- by law within 14 days.

2-bedroom apartment : 3 local movers working for 5-7 hours at an average of $25 each per hour = $375-$525 to get the job done. That is if you can’t do it yourself. Most young people, like the ones living in the building in the article, do it themselves or with the help of friends.

The gist of the article is that a landlord elected not to extend leases. They didn’t do it out of retaliation or discrimination. What possible government policy could prevent this? Would you suggest that leases have no expiration dates?

[anon61221983]

@Uniq

Your first month’s rent is rent that you otherwise would have had to spend on your old apartment.

I have no lived in an apartment for years, and even I know that it’s not just first month, it’s first AND last month, AND a security deposit. It’s not moving in for $1000.

@Uniq

You should get your security deposit back from your old apartment when you move out- by law within 14 days.

Unless they decide to fuck you, and in this case, the landlord was going to throw them out on the street with a member of the household was literally dying.

@Uniq

3 local movers working for 5-7 hours at an average of $25 each per hour = $375-$525 to get the job done.

And many people on a fixed income can’t afford that.

This is an 87 year old refugee on a fixed income. Do you honestly think that he can pack up his life, and get all his stuff moved into a new place on his own? Or do you just think he’s being lazy?

@Uniq

he gist of the article is that a landlord elected not to extend leases.

She threatened eviction WHILE HIS SON WAS DYING.

@Uniq

Would you suggest that leases have no expiration dates?

No. I’d suggest people make more moral choices.

[Melz2]

@anon61221983

it’s not just first month, it’s first AND last month, AND a security deposit. It’s not moving in for $1000.

I’ve rented entire houses and apartments ever since moving out on my own at 20; I can attest that has been the case for me, everywhere that I’ve lived, in and outside the continental US.

[anon61221983]

Anyone who thinks it’s easy to rent an apartment in a major city (or even a minor city) in America if you don’t have a nest egg of savings has to be staggeringly ignorant about the struggles that working class people face…

[Melz2]

[davide405]

@Uniq

You should get your security deposit back from your old apartment when you move out- by law within 14 days.

I’ve lived in a lot of apartments over the years and this has literally never happened for me.

I did get most of a cleaning deposit back once, but that took over a month.

Edit to add…

Let’s recap the costs we’ve put above for the average NYC area resident, assuming they will want to save up 3 months of expenses.These expenses may not be quite as high in cities with lower costs of living; bear that in mind if the costs you incur are typically smaller. Assuming rent costs $1,000 per month with 3 months of rent saved up required, the savings start with $3,000 going toward rent money. Moving costs, including buying packing materials, paying movers and sometimes insurance, will run somewhere around $500 (for someone with a $1,000 monthly rent). $3500 goes into making sure this person can move into their apartment with all their belongings safely. If this person decides to save up 3 months of expenses for food, transportation, and utilities expenses (each somewhere between $100-$150 a month), this adds another $400 per each of those three months, adding up to $1,200. Adding it all together without taking into account high-variance loan payments or lifestyle spending, a lean-living New Yorker could work with around $5,000 of savings for about 3 months. Those playing it extra safe may want to include additional savings for surprise costs or emergency expenses.
{emphasis added}

Source for above:

How Much Money Do You Need to Save Before Moving Out?

[DukeTrout]

@Uniq

But in some cases, the market changes and a more profitable opportunity is available.

Even the Business Roundtable has changed the definition of a corporation’s purpose to put people over profit. If you find yourself in a position where you’re more ruthless than Jamie Dimon, you need to recalibrate.

[anon61221983]

@davide405

I’ve lived in a lot of apartments over the years and this has literally never happened for me.

Clearly, that’s on you… after all, landlords never take advantage of their tenants or the law in order to defraud them! /s

What gets me about that is that we all just kind of accept that no matter how utterly spotless you leave a rental, you’re more likely than not going to get the deposit back.

[Uniq]

So, no policy suggestion, just outrage that a landlord didn’t comply with an unwritten moral obligation for them to subsidize the downtrodden.

Try negotiating that clause into your next lease. “If Lessee shall age, get sick, or cash on hand shall fall below $1,000, then Lessee shall have annual options to extend the lease at the same terms.”

No landlord would agree to that obviously, but if that became a tenant’s right, the asking price for a rental would jump considerably. Options in contracts cost money.

[DukeTrout]

There’s law & policy, and there’s humanity & society.

This greedy asshole may have every legal right to boot an octogenarian tenant with a dying son. They also have the right to wear milkshakes every day for the rest of the year.

[Uniq]

Honoring a lease until the end and then not agreeing to extend is ruthless? What a horrible business to get into. Sort of like lending money. There will inevitably be borrowers with difficult circumstances and you’ll be the villain for seeking repayment.

There are only a handful of important terms in a lease. Start date, monthly rent, and expiration are pretty much it. 2 parties sign the agreement.

However, I would say that the landlord in the story above is the exception, which is why it made the news.

[DukeTrout]

Did you read the article? The tenant is a Section 8 tenant, who was being charged $2500/mo, then $3200/mo. The landlord claims she “has a right to make money” on the property. Really? She’s not making money on $3200/mo rent? WTF? It’s an old building, that hasn’t been renovated in decades. The word that applies is simply GREED.

ETA: The landlord also characterized $3200/mo as “free rent.” That’s right, when asked about it, she said “why should someone get free rent just because they’re sick.” She’s a real charmer.

[Uniq]

I guess I didn’t read the same article as you. In the article I read, the landlord was a company, which was owned by a man.

[anon61221983]

@Uniq

So, no policy suggestion, just outrage that a landlord didn’t comply with an unwritten moral obligation for them to subsidize the downtrodden.

I’m sorry, but at some point people have to actual realize that their actions to line their pockets have real world consequences for real human beings. Evicting everyone to increase the profit margin is pretty shitty, IMHO.

@Uniq

Honoring a lease until the end and then not agreeing to extend is ruthless?

In that case, YES. It very much is.

@DukeTrout

Did you read the article? The tenant is a Section 8 tenant, who was being charged $2500/mo, then $3200/mo

I think we’re thinking of the other thread about the Holocaust survivor. Fortunately, there is enough ruthless eviction to go around, apparently!

[DukeTrout]

@Uniq

I guess I didn’t read the same article as you. In the article I read, the landlord was a company, which was owned by a man.

You’ve been responding to a sub-thread originating from this post:

Owner of Phoenix apartment building serves eviction notices to every tenant so he can turn their homes into unlicensed hotel rooms

The AirBnB evictions are a perverse incentive, but it doesn’t even take that to cause landlords to be, IMO, sociopathically greedy. This one in the Bay Area is evicting an 87 year-old Holocaust survivor - raising the rent on the 2 bedroom Alameda apartment to $3200 wasn’t enough, so she decided to add straight up eviction.

[Uniq]

My bad. No, I didn’t read that other article.

[dommerdoodle]

@anon61221983

I’m sorry, but at some point people have to actual realize that their actions to line their pockets have real world consequences for real human beings. Evicting everyone to increase the profit margin is pretty shitty, IMHO.

Witness Steve Mnuchin - one of the orange skull’s henchmen