How is it illegal or unethical if rent goes up when you seek to renew the lease which has fully run its course?
Certainly not the federal government’s delegated job to regulate intrastate commerce or things which are not interstate commerce even though they affect it (no delegated power to regulate things which merely affect interstate commerce).
Unless there is, as you point out, a clause in the lease that is not being honored the renter is at the mercy of circumstances.
As one local fellow who has been pushing home ownership over renting has been saying in commercials for decades now: well bless their hearts.
I guess we’ll find out if it’s “illegal” or “”unethical” as this plays out. I suspect this is another Democrat squeeze on another segment of big business. I have no creds in legal or otherwise so I don’t pretend to know. All I do know is if you lease a car for 3 years, the payment is the same for 3 years. If you rent a car for a week, it’s the same price for each day. If you rent a vacation home, the rent doesn’t escalate each week. You can sign a 3 or 5 year lease on retail space without penalty. But to rent an apartment nowadays, you are restricted to one year leases. During that lease, you must pay your own gas, electric, trash pick-up, cable, pest-control, etc. Ten months into that 1 yr lease, you are presented with a time-limited offer to sign a new one year lease now at a new higher rate within a week or pay an even higher rent when the lease ends if you want to stay.
I sold our home after my husband passed away. I went the apartment route temporarily. I didn’t know a lot. I learned fast. Maybe not corrupt in the usual sense, but the industry is not reactive to people…only to asset management. They would rather have a vacant apartment or empty retail space than negotiate a transition to a new lease.
I know this is long-winded. I apologize. When this began with RealPage, I didn’t think it would amount to much. That said, the news seems more and more like a squeeze every day. Considering who is squeezing, it could be interesting theater.