Another unwarranted rent rise.

[Bretrick]

I feel for you, @Bretrick. My rent has gone up every year since I moved into my new place. I'm now paying nearly $1,200/month—for a studio apartment, in North Dakota. It's ridiculous. My state has no cap on rent increases.

I've been tempted to buy a small house. I've seen some for which the monthly mortgage would be about half my rent, or even less. However, I worry about all the maintenace and upkeep costs. My biggest concern, though, is that I doubt I'd qualify for a mortgage. My credit score is quite high, but I have a lot of debt. So that (inability to qualify for financing because of current debt) disqualifies me for something like a condo.

$100/week is outrageous. I'm so sorry you're facing such a high increase. My stomach is knotting up just thinking about it.

It is the reason I am moving state. I refuse to play this bul*shit game where the opposition is a cheat.
Going to a place where my rent will be half what it is currently.
Lived here in Western Australia for 38 years and have been forced out by a greedy landlord just looking to make more and more profit.

 

[Bretrick]

Without knowing the expenses it's hard to know if it is justified or not. If the building(s) are more than 50 years old they might be requiring some expensive maintenance. If there are elevators, those have lifespans and have become very expensive.

Now that I live in a condo and see the reports on the expenses, it is very surprising to see the costs, seems like everything, such as roof, building facade, elevators, underground garage cement stuff, storage area 'mold remediation' (before my time), each cost a million dollars! And then there are the ongoing costs of the staff, the lights/heat in the hallways/lobby/activity room, the regular maintenance (paint, plumbing repairs, grounds maintenance, etc), the pointless obsession (IMO) of re-decorating the lobby (ok, once in 20 years, but I liked the old quaint decor better than the modern stuff they changed to) - it all adds up.

But, even with all the expenses and the community features (swimming pools, clubhouses, etc), it only costs about half as much monthly as it would if I rented. So I'd guess for-profit rental housing must be swimming in money.

I wish it was easier and more common for people to live in housing co-ops because those are significantly cheaper to live in, but there don't seem to be very many of those compared to regular rental places.

Very little maintenance costs are being spent here.
The landlord does as little as possible. To be honest, the building is holding up very well. Though I notice a large crack opening up on the corner of my unit. This is progressing along one wall inside my kitchen. I have an inspection in 2 weeks. I will be pointing this crack out and will suggest it needs a professional surveyor to assess it.
The carpet in my unit was laid in 1971. Still there. Landlord spends as little as possible.

 

[Paladin1950]

That's shocking, greedy, and totally heartless and cruel.

 

[Jules]

Bret, if you moved to Melbourne and the shared situation didn’t work out, you could search for an apartment there. I just read that Perth has the highest rental vacancy rate in Australia.

 

[WheatenLover]

Picture this. Landlord owns over 100 units. Has done so for more than 50 years.
Easily bringing in over one million 800 thousand dollars a year.
Over 50 years, how much would have been accumulated?
Notice of rent rise each year. This time $100 a week.
Anyone out there tell me how the constant rent rises can be justified?
Remember, currently bringing in $1.8 million a year.

It's easily justified. He owns the units and he can charge whatever rent he desires.

I rented a place for 9 years once. The rent was fair. The landlord raised the rent by $50/month one time. Quite possibly, had I been his financial advisor, I would have thought that was unjustified.

I think that is horrendous situation for you to be in. I'd move, and hopefully find a decent and cheaper place to live. I have literally never heard of a landlord raising the rent by $400/mo or $5200 a year. Justified does not mean reasonable or fair or moral or anything else like that.

 

[Sunkist]

What gets me (worried) even more than rent increases is they're only required to give tenants 30 days notice of an increase.

 

[Bretrick]

Bret, if you moved to Melbourne and the shared situation didn’t work out, you could search for an apartment there. I just read that Perth has the highest rental vacancy rate in Australia.

Perth has the second lowest vacancy rate in Australia. Hobart is worse.
Perth's vacancy rate is 1%. This means for every 100 rental properties there are, only one of them is currently vacant and on the market.
Perth currently has approximately 2,900 rentals available. For a population of 2.5 million people.
Melbourne is not much better. 1.8%, meaning there are 9,620 rental vacancies in Melbourne. Population of Melbourne is 5.5 million people.

 

[Bretrick]

It's easily justified. He owns the units and he can charge whatever rent he desires.

I rented a place for 9 years once. The rent was fair. The landlord raised the rent by $50/month one time. Quite possibly, had I been his financial advisor, I would have thought that was unjustified.

I think that is horrendous situation for you to be in. I'd move, and hopefully find a decent and cheaper place to live. I have literally never heard of a landlord raising the rent by $400/mo or $5200 a year. Justified does not mean reasonable or fair or moral or anything else like that.

Nothing about the rental market is fair.
My rent is currently $250 a week below the average. Many, many people are suffering much higher rents, which are continually rising.

 

[Bretrick]

What gets me (worried) even more than rent increases is they're only required to give tenants 30 days notice of an increase.

Here in Perth, 60 days' notice.
What angers me the most is that rents for current tenants will never go down.
The only way rents will go down is if many more rentals become available.
Only when a rental comes onto the market might the rent be lower than what the previous tenant was paying.
The landlord is never going to say to the tenant, "You have been so good to me, giving me hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years I have decided to reduce your rent by 10/20/30...%."

 

[Buckeye]

You know, sometimes I get the feeling that the landlords are just in the business for the money.....

 

[Bretrick]

You know, sometimes I get the feeling that the landlords are just in the business for the money.....

You don't think that they have an altruistic streak coursing through their veins?