A San Francisco man who fancied himself a landlord and building manager — but who apparently failed to do more than just collect rent that he didn’t always pay up the ladder — has been ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to tenants who paid exorbitant sums to live in “squalid” conditions with phantom appliances, exposed wiring, and rodents run amok. [More]
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![The building in San Francisco's Mission district is now being renovated, "presumably for wealthier tenants," notes the judge. [image via Google Maps]](../../consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/luckystreet.png?w=300&h=225&crop=1)
San Francisco Landlord Charged $4K/Month In Rent For Rodent-Infested “Death Trap” Apartments
By 9.8.15
Crate And Barrel Closing NYC Flagship After 20 Years Because The Rent Is Too Darn High
By 6.8.15
Your average New York City citizens aren’t the only ones who might be pushed from their preferred neighborhood amid skyrocketing real estate prices: after 20 years inhabiting its flagship store on Madison Avenue, Crate and Barrel is leaving the building behind to avoid paying higher rent. [More]
Should A Landlord Be Allowed To Repeatedly Offer Buyout Offers To Resistant Tenants?
By 4.28.15
When it comes to courtship, sometimes asking more than once is just too much. That’s why a proposed law in New York City would make it illegal for landlords to offer a tenant a buyout after they’ve already been told that the renter doesn’t want any such deal. But a group representing the landlords says tenants might change their minds down the line. [More]
Why Do I Still Have To Write A Check To Pay My Rent?
By 4.21.15
Carrying around a checkbook all of the time seems outdated even by the standards of America’s grandmas. Why is it, then, that 70% of people who rent their homes write a check every month to pay the bill? That trend is changing, but very slowly. [More]
Apple Stores Rake In Money, Get Mall Rent Breaks
By 3.10.15
An article in the Wall Street Journal today forced me to face a difficult truth about myself: I only go to the mall when one of my Apple products breaks or I want to test makeup. I’m not alone in this, apparently, because Apple Stores are replacing department stores as a driver of traffic to malls, and they’ve worked out unique rent arrangements because of that. [More]
Indiana Woman Lived In A House For Eight Years Without Ever Having To Pay For It
By 9.23.14
The luxury of not having to pay rent or a mortgage payment every month might seem like some kind of fever dream, obtainable only by those scant few who make the rest of us uncomfortably jealous, but one woman in Indiana managed to pull it off not just for a few months or even a year — but for eight years. [More]
Landlord Demands Current Tenants Prove They Make At Least $100K To Keep Apartments
By 5.6.14
A lot of apartment buildings in pricey cities have strict income and credit requirements for potential tenants, but once you’ve got the apartment all that generally matters is that you pay your rent on time and in full. The landlord of one building in San Francisco recently posted a letter telling current tenants that they will have to be re-screened to make sure they are earning at least $100,000 a year and have sterling credit. [More]
Should Tenants Be Punished For Landlord's Inability To Pay Water Bill?
By 8.8.12
The residents of a South Florida apartment complex could be on the street soon — not because they failed to pay their rent or utility bills, but because their landlord has allegedly run up a $14,000 water and sewer tab and won’t pay up. [More]
Apartment Rents Rising Nationwide To Highest Average In Five Years
By 7.6.12
Grumbling over the rising price of rent? You’re not the only one — across the country, it’s becoming more expensive to rent, with rates rising at a pace that hasn’t been seen since before the financial crisis. Fear of even higher rents might be keeping tenants in their apartments as well, as the vacancy rate was the lowest it’s been since 2001. [More]
All You Have To Do To Live Rent-Free For 6 Years Is Go Without Gas & Hot Water
By 6.11.12
Would it be worth having no hot water or gas to cook with for a year and a half, if it meant you could withhold rent for six years? It was worth it for one Brooklyn woman, who has been justified in not paying rent on her loft because her landlord didn’t keep up with basic maintenance or address her safety concerns. [More]
Supreme Court Decides At Least Some NYC Apartments Will Remain Affordable
By 4.23.12
For more than 40 years, finding a rent-stabilized apartment in New York City has been like winning the lottery. Earlier this morning, the U.S. Supreme Court shot down a challenge to the rent-stabilization regulations, meaning at least a million city residents will continue to pay rent that is only a fraction of what their neighbors pay [More]
Tenants May Have To Leave Because Landlords Haven't Paid Water Bill In Five Years
By 2.14.12
When a landlord says that the cost of water is included in the rent, one might assume that this landlord is dutifully paying that water bill on time, or at least every few years. But tenants at an apartment complex in Georgia recently found out that the owners of the buildings hadn’t paid the water bill in five years — and that the water would be shut off in a week. [More]
Renting Doesn't Necessarily Protect You From Inept Mortgage Servicers
By 12.6.11
Whenever I bring up the ongoing mortgage and foreclosure fiasco (and yes, this topic does come up often in my casual conversation; which is probably why I’m single), at least one of my renter friends cavalierly states that he or she is happy to not have to worry about having a bank wrongly foreclose on them, or mistakenly seize their stuff. But as the following story shows, that just isn’t so. [More]
Renter Sues To Keep Name Off List Of Renters Who Have Been Sued
By 11.3.11
If you’re sued for eviction by your landlord in New York state, whether you win or lose the case, your name goes on a list that then gets sold to other landlords looking to screen out potential nuisance renters. Wanting to keep his name and record clean, one Manhattan man has preemptively sued to bar his name from being added to the list. [More]
More People Spending More Of Their Income On Rent
By 9.22.11
New data on U.S. housing costs shows that more than half of the nation’s renters are writing rent checks that are at least 30% of their household income, and one in four renters are paying out half their income for shelter. [More]
Landlord Uses "Psychic Credit Checks" On Potential Tenants
By 6.23.11
Maybe you weren’t worried when you heard that Experian was adding rental payments to its credit reports because you’ve always paid your landlord on time. But now it’s time to look deep within your psyche and soul to ask yourself if you’d pass a psychic credit check. [More]
What Teller Would Cash This Clearly Fraudulent Check?
By 3.24.11
Vanessa’s rent check was stolen somewhere between her mailbox and the property management office. It ended up in the hands of unsavory fraudsters, who altered the check in a decidedly low-tech way: with a Sharpie. [More]
Split The Rent Helps You Calculate Rent Fairly
By 2.18.11
Do you share an apartment or house with multiple people, but aren’t sure how to divide up the rent? Not all bedrooms are created equal, but the Split the Rent calculator can help you figure out who owes what. It accounts for variables like bedroom size, private bathrooms, windows, closet space, and the amount of common space in the home. [More]
