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“Your monthly rent .. shall increase from $2145 to $8900”

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Re: “Your monthly rent .. shall increase from $2145 to $8900”

#61

I just don't see the news here. It's totally legal, and done all the time: it's why people lease houses rather than go month to month. It's not a reflection of the market in SF. This happens everywhere a landlord who isn't getting on with their month-to-month tenants and want them out, for whatever reason. It happened to me in 2005. It's not a necessarily a reflection of anything outside of the personal situation of…

Part of the outrage is that the owner is apparently being dishonest and provides no justification (and it's hard to imagine any reasonable justification) for suddenly demanding a 3x and security deposit increase. What additional value has the owner provided the tenant to justify such a large increase? If the owner wants the tenant out, the owner should say so, not hide behind some ridiculous attorney letter and extor…

What part of a month-to-month rental contract do you not understand?

Re: “Your monthly rent .. shall increase from $2145 to $8900”

#62
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's sort of obnoxious and should be illegal to force landlords to keep renters ad infinitum just because. That hardly seems fair to the landlord, no?

If they think it's unfair, they could just... not rent their buildings out. There's plenty of buildings in the US that don't come under rent control laws that they could buy and rent out.

And up to 10,000 units in San Francisco are vacant because they think it's unfair. http://kalw.org/post/growing-number-san-francisco-landlords-...

Re: “Your monthly rent .. shall increase from $2145 to $8900”

#63
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's sort of obnoxious and should be illegal to force landlords to keep renters ad infinitum just because. That hardly seems fair to the landlord, no?

I think it's sort of obnoxious and should be illegal to force renters to leave their homes just because. That hardly seems fair to the tenant, no?

Seems fair to me... when it's not your property.

Re: “Your monthly rent .. shall increase from $2145 to $8900”

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That you dislike a law does not make it any less the law. That a thing is very popular does not make it lawful. The law has always been distinct from morality, with clear gateways from moral sentiment to the law.

>The law has always been distinct from morality, Has it? If you look at Hebrew and Christian tradition, the two are highly conflated.

I think that despite the strong correlation & overlap, yes, law has "always been" distinct from morality, at least where the law wasn't whimsical.

If it's not illegal, you can still do it, morals be damned, without being punished.

It's pretty much the point of law--to give warning & right to punish. That's not the same as morals.

Re: “Your monthly rent .. shall increase from $2145 to $8900”

#65
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Rentals are for a limited time by definition. I know people (in fact, every branch of my family, along with many of my friends) who have rented their entire lives, because they can't own - they've never been able to amass enough capital or convince someone else to lend them it. Should they be uprooted every year (or more often) because someone wants to make a bit more money? Rentals are whatever the combination of…

> Should they be uprooted every year (or more often) because someone wants to make a bit more money? No, they shouldn't be, but that's not really the issue. The issue is: should landlords be legally allowed to uproot them? My answer is a decisive yes. For whatever the reason, they should be able to not renew a contract once it expires. I don't see why laws should be in place to restrict how much someone makes. Nobody…

> No, they shouldn't be, but that's not really the issue.

Yes, it really is. Which does the most harm - uprooting people and families every year, forcing them to deal with the stress of moving and finding new life patterns which match wherever they live now, or disallowing landlords from making a bit more money?

EDIT: s/allowing/disallowing/

Re: “Your monthly rent .. shall increase from $2145 to $8900”

#66
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's sort of obnoxious and should be illegal to force landlords to keep renters ad infinitum just because. That hardly seems fair to the landlord, no?

Rent control does not force landlords to keep renters ad infinitum. It protects tenants from price gouging. Landlords can impose rent increases far beyond fair market rents for new tenants because it's costly and inconvenient to move, but (in a sellers' market) cheap to replace tenants. This imbalance of negotiating power necessitates regulations. Now, you can argue that particular rent control laws are too aggressiv…

Property owners took a risk by purchasing property, just as anyone does purchasing shares of a public company for instance. The value of your asset can go up and you find yourself in an advantageous position (a seller's market as you put it), or prices can fall and recurring buyers (like renters) are at the advantage. Rent control only distorts the market and is unfair to everyone.

Re: “Your monthly rent .. shall increase from $2145 to $8900”

#67
Regardless of legality, this is obviously wrong. The owner of the property clearly has no understanding of reality; they're going to be financially destroyed by this move, so no additional action necessary on that front. Glad to see someone so evil fall on hard times; pity they won't suffer more.

As for the tenant(s); if you want to relocate, I'll put you up in Minneapolis for free for a couple months if you want. No conditions, just let me know.

Re: “Your monthly rent .. shall increase from $2145 to $8900”

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTOH, how much can you restrict the property owner? What if the other unit needed to be knocked down for a reason other than to get rid of rent control? Would it be OK for the law to tell the owner to fix it some other way? What if both units were destroyed in a natural disaster and a new structure had to be built from nothing? Is that still rent-controlled? Also, is rent control even a good idea? In the short term,…

If you own the building, i'd say you should be free to do what you want. Just because you rented out a unit 5 years ago doesn't mean you want to rent it out forever. You own the building after all. Imagine a building with 20+ units, you'd never be able to clear it out. But, that doesn't make it a fun process to go through for a renter. It sucks. Couldn't the owner just ask the person who is renting the unit to move o…

Why can't they tell the tennet to move out? In Australia residential leases have a fixed term (usually 12 months) and after that become month-to-month, and the owner can ask you to leave with 90 days notice when you're not under a contract.

Re: “Your monthly rent .. shall increase from $2145 to $8900”

#69

I just don't see the news here. It's totally legal, and done all the time: it's why people lease houses rather than go month to month. It's not a reflection of the market in SF. This happens everywhere a landlord who isn't getting on with their month-to-month tenants and want them out, for whatever reason. It happened to me in 2005. It's not a necessarily a reflection of anything outside of the personal situation of…

They converted the other unit in the building to storage (after hassling that tenant out). I don't think it's anything like 'isn't getting on', the landlord wants to convert the building to some other use and simply doesn't care about the tenants, which isn't the same as finding them disagreeable or whatever (one imagines they might want to do something like sell it as a private home).

Legally, it's all under the same umbrella. I never said this was scrupulous. Just legal, and perfectly commonplace. Not news.

It's being used as a rallying cry by people who were perfectly content with capitalism until it started being applied to them.

Re: “Your monthly rent .. shall increase from $2145 to $8900”

#70
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they think it's unfair, they could just... not rent their buildings out. There's plenty of buildings in the US that don't come under rent control laws that they could buy and rent out.

And up to 10,000 units in San Francisco are vacant because they think it's unfair. http://kalw.org/post/growing-number-san-francisco-landlords-...

If those landlords don't have clear plans to use the property, that is decidedly irrational.
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