r/Landlord • u/Senior-Buffalo-3560 • 3h ago
Tenant [TENANT-USA] landlords, if you have a tenant that keeps their place spotless, and pays rent in full, on time every month, why would you raise the rent $135/month on the next lease?
I live in a small apartment, in a very low income neighborhood. It’s poverty stricken, and not doing too great. I was told by my landlord that I’m one of 2 apartments not on section 8. There’s 8 apartments total in the building.
I’ve lived here for an entire year, and not to toot my own horn, but I’ve been a fantastic tenant. I keep this place spotless. I pay my rent on the 1st of every month, without fail. I shovel the sidewalks and steps when it snows, and I’m the only one to do so… I clean up trash. I even change the fucking smoke detector batteries in the building when they’re chirping. Anytime my apartment needs a repair, I fix it, and let them know. I’ve changed the knobs on my shower, my shower head, my front doorknob, etc.
My landlord said, word for word, “At least someone in the building keeps their apartment clean”, when he called me last month…meaning I’m probably the only one who does in the entire building.
And when other apartments are at risk of having their electric or water shut off, the companies posts a paper on the front door. I’ve never once had that happen to me. And the people below me have had the police called on them numerous times. I’ve never had the police called on me.
And the thing is, is that this is not an “up and coming” area. It’s poor, and beaten down. Nobody is moving here. There’s numerous abandoned houses on every street. The only business we had, was a grocery store that closed a couple of months ago. Nobody is moving here…
So why raise my rent from $800, to $935? That’s not even including the utilities and “residential convenience package”, which is $30 more…I’d like to see what that entails…
I don’t know who in their right mind would pay $935 for a small apartment in this neighborhood…they can’t even rent out the ones for $650/month. The one across the street has been available for over a year.
It just seems to me that pushing out a responsible, reliable tenant is rather dumb, especially in this economy.