I am a landlord, and will respond as such.
1. First look at your lease. A landlord cannot raise rents in the middle of a lease.
2. If your lease is expiring, and this is occurring at renewal, your landlord is completely justified in raising rent to whatever they deem appropriate. The fact that it is under new ownership may explain the “why” it is happening now.
The reasons the increase may be deemed excessive by you could be for several reasons:
First, you say it was recently purchased by a new landlord. The old landlord may not have been fastidious in keeping rents at market rate. When the property was sold, the new landlord underwrote it assuming that they could get the property to market rates. In short, had the property not been sold, you were on your way to becoming a slum. By increasing the rent, the new landlord is investing in your complex which will improve not just the complex, but the neighborhood. Gentrification is slammed by socialists, but it is actually a good thing to have someone making sure the neighborhood does not become a slum.
Second, even if the previous landlord kept new leases at market, they may have given deals to longstanding tenants to renew that were below market, specifically to keep vacancies down. Whereas this was good for you at the time, the new landlord has a new business plan for the property and may be willing to let renters go during the conversion.
Third, the costs of the complex absolutely went up. First, the new landlord just bought it for a lot more than the old owner paid. This means their mortgage is a lot higher than it used to be. With the new mortgage, you can be sure property taxes are going up to match the new established valuation. Insurance also goes up with a new valuation. Depending on where in the country you are, commercial property insurance is increasing around 20% year over year on average. (I am in Florida, where insurance has increased 300% in the last 2 years). If you remember back when COVID hit, there was a lot of news about the cost of building supplies and the supply chain. The supply chain issues are resolved now, but the prices did NOT go back to where they were. So the cost of maintenance is now higher. Finally, it sounds like old landlord had a bad (i.e, cheap) property manager, so I would guess you now have a new property management firm. They probably cost more than the old firm. In short, the cost of providing you with housing just went up a LOT, and ultimately, you have to pay for it, or find somewhere else to live.
Typically, during conversion from one landlord to another, what the new landlord does is remodel the units. As a made up example, a unit with original finishes may only command $1000/mo, but an updated unit could get $1300. The new landlord targets converting 6 units per month. So, they up your rent on a original finish unit, and you either pay (so they get the rent they need without having to do the updates) or you leave, so they can remodel your unit and get $1300 from the next tenant.
Finally, for those telling you to get a lawyer to make their life miserable ... if your lease is up, you don’t have a leg to stand on. The courts will uphold the law, and unless there are laws about allowable increases that they are breaking, they are simply offering you a new lease at a higher rate to reflect the modern realities of the cost of housing. Even if there are laws about allowable increases, a new owner is not required to renew your lease, especially if they have a renovation plan (which I can pretty much guarantee they do).
In short, no sleazeball lawyer can stop them because the law is on their side. All you will do is waste a lot of money on a lawyer and get yourself a bad reference for any future apartments you want to rent. And ... Yes, when you fill out a lease, the landlord can call your previous apartment and find out if you were a good tenant. If you decide to sue them for no cause (which this is), be prepared to live in a cardboard box because nobody will ever rent to you again.
I’m expecting rents to be by the minute soon. 100$ a minute.
true if they do not have rent control.
if they have rent control, then perhaps consult the relevant local city ordinance for the allowable percentage periodic rent increase. if it’s higher then maybe just complain to the city directly (avoid lawyer costs if possible). also the landlord may not be aware of the rent control ordinance so maybe talk with him/her first.
i’m not sure how rent control applies to transfer of ownership. maybe ordinarily not at all— in which case the renter may be out of luck. i would first check with the city to avoid lawyer fees since that kind of stuff may be spelled out in rent control ordidances and/or well understood in city offices.
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