Posted on 01/18/2020 4:03:24 PM PST by karpov
A growing number of legislators are trying to eliminate a practice that has prevented many lower- and middle-income people from renting an apartment: the steep, all-cash security deposit.
With low-cost housing hard to come by in many states, state and city lawmakers are introducing bills that would give younger renters and others strapped for cash the choice to replace security deposits with insurance policies or installment plans paid overtime. These payments are usually equivalent to one or two months’ rent, which landlords require as a guarantee against damages.
Cincinnati on Wednesday became the first U.S. city to require that landlords accept alternatives to a cash deposit, including payment plans and insurance.
New York state lawmakers recently passed a measure limiting deposits to no more than one month’s rent. A member of the Virginia House of Delegates submitted a bill to give tenants options for how they pay deposits last week. Legislators in Connecticut, Alabama and New Hampshire say they plan to introduce similar bills.
Laws to ease costs associated with security deposits are part of a growing effort by lawmakers in a number of states to address the shortage of affordable housing and rapidly rising rents. Over the past year, California, New York and Oregon have introduced new limits on rent, while others have enhanced protections against evictions.
Average rents rose 36% nationally over the past decade, though rents rose more than twice that amount in hot markets such as Denver and Seattle, according to data provider Yardi Matrix. About a quarter of American renters pay 50% or more of their income in rent, according to listings platform Apartment List.
Many landlords are already pushing back against the security-deposit legislation. They say collecting all-cash security deposits at move-in is necessary to protect their assets
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Glad to hear you could work something out. You were in a very difficult position.
In my rural area security deposits are often excused for promises to do work on the premises. Seldom works out.
OTOH everybody here is related, more or less, so ‘good will’ is an important consideration.
We had tenants in our beach house who grilled things on the oven rack under the top electric coil not bothering to protect the lower electric coil from all the stuff that dripped down.
Even electronic transfers (how we prefer to be paid) are "cash".
Electronic transfers are the best. The landlord is sure the money is there which is not always the case with a check and the renter is not hit with a late fee because his check went astray.
All that will do is motivate the landlord to increase the rent to cover the additional risk.
Liberals believe STRONGLY in ‘unintended consequences’...
Without it the media couldn’t hide their true intent!
Security deposits have been illegal in Ontario for years. Any deposit taken must be for last month’s rent. If you have a problem with the state of the apartment when a tenant leaves, you must take it to court. I used to be in property management, and most of the time it’s just not worth it.
Every place I rented the landlord went over and above to keep that deposit for some phoney reason. I would love to see some kind of protection for renters when they check out. Not all renters know they should basically photo and video walk thru and document everything.
It amazes me that people who want to keep the money they have worked for and earned are considered greedy by people who want to take money earned by others. Maybe the government should force non property owners to house one homeless person.......everybody wins!
My present landlord had to post a notice about not flushing things down the toilet, because of all the people who were from out of the country staying in the building on a temporary basis who thought toilets were magic garbage disposalls.
I guarantee that landlords there raised rents to include that risk.
(Or went out of business).
Plank #1 of the Communist Manifesto: Abolition of private property rights.
That isn’t right. How much of that gets declared to the IRS? Too easy to say it never got paid when you move out. (and I ain’t no friend to the IRS)
The only thing we ever take in cash is our application fee, $50 per adult which goes to a credit and criminal background check. Time is of the essence and before we investigate we have no assurance a personal check will clear.
All other payments are made either by check or money order, which we stamp for deposit only to our bank account, and copy immediately. This prevents disputes over amounts and dates.
When they say "all-cash" what they really mean is that it can not be financed over time.
Since the deposit must be refunded, or at least accounted for at the end of the rental it is not income, and none of it is declared at the point it is is made. If I use the deposit for cleaning or damage repair, it is not income to me and is not declared. If I use it to cover unpaid rent, it is income and is declared.
The deposit is almost never enough to cover even small issues. A turnover always means we lose a month's rent. Extensive damage, or even just extensive dirt means we lose more.
lived at same address for number of years
Every time jack up rent, increase security depoosits
Have thousand in escrow account doing nothing
lived at same address for number of years
Every time jack up rent, increase security depoosits
Have thousand in escrow account doing nothing
That’s why I trained my kitty to just use the toilet. No litter, no problem. Wait, I think this was actually a De Niro film. He said, “Cats can’t flush toilets because they don’t have opposable thumbs.” You don’t need an opposable thumb to work a lever, stupid De Niro (who didn’t write the dialogue). ;)
You think nice people stiff the landlord for last month’s rent? Did he have to pay a mortgage payment for that month? Property taxes?
People who do this are deadbeats. Try not paying the last installment on a car loan.
Any landlord offering property in locales with laws that favor tenants to this extent should rethink their investment choices. Or at least they need better language in their leases, for protection.
To move into my rental property you would pay first month, last month and security deposit - which is an amount lesser than a month’s rent. Now I never worry about a deadbeat moving out and not paying rent. And the damage deposit is clearly designated to compensate for damage.
Legislating that landlords follow bad business practices will lead to shortages and high rents.
Even when I have gotten judgements against bad tenants, they have never paid. How does the court enforce the judgement in Ontario?
De Niro doesn’t need writers to create stupid things for him to say...
The really funny part was that they were not suppose to have unapproved pets. So I had to hit them with that as well.
If they hadn't been flushing I probably never would have known they had the cat. The non refundable pet deposit paid for half of the plumber's bill.
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