I know what he's doing is illegal, but I don't know how to confront him about it. I really hate confrontation and I'm not good at this sort of thing. I can't afford a 13% increase, which is triple the annual limit where I live. How do I respond to him? (Serious answers please, no Mao larping.)
Can he kick me out if I don't sign a new lease? I really don't want to be forced out. I'm looking for a new pace now but it's almost impossible to find one that fits my needs in this area (also moving without a car is expensive and time consuming).
Look up any local tenants right's groups. Most areas have them and they'll be familiar with local laws and how to respond to landleeches.
Tennet law is so variable between areas thst you would basically have to find a tennets rights lawyer for your area. Useually for quite a reasonable price you can get a little consult and formletter form them.
Thank you! I can't afford a full-time lawyer but it might be worth it to get a form-letter just to show my landlord I'm serious.
Might be worth calling your local legal aid society and asking if they can help or recommend anyone.
I had my landlord try this one time. I responded over text with a message along the lines of:
Hi landlord,
I'm not sure if you are aware, but the maximum amount that rent can be increased is x.x%. If you are interested in raising the rent, please provide me with a new lease that is within that threshold. That being said, I would like to kindly ask that the rent is not increased. In light of the ongoing pandemic and blah blah blah justify why it shouldn't go up I blamed covid. Additionally, there are several maintenance issues that still need to be addressed. The xxx is broken, and xxx is also no longer working. I had previously made you aware of these on xxx date, so please let me know when to expect a repair person"
Thanks,
FRIENDLY_BUTTMUNCHER
Also if there is a maintenance item that the landlord is not addressing in your suite there are certain municipalities where you can pay for it yourself and then require the landlord to pay. There are restrictions on the type of work and sometimes you might not have the liquidity, but it is something to be aware of.
"I can't sign this as it is above the legal limit and I could get in trouble."
I'm 100% sure he would say, "No, I don't mind. Go ahead and sign it." He always find some kind of excuse for every little thing. Our oven hasn't worked in two years.
True story: when I lost my job during the pandemic he literally told me to beg my family and friends for money to pay the rent. Even tough I'm pretty sure he could have just gotten some government grant to cover it. He's that kind of landlord.
When you do move out, take tons of pictures. Take pictures of the floors, walls, inside the closets, the blinds, anything they furnished the place with. When they try to withhold your final fee, take them to small claims court.
If you have a blacklight, take pictures under the fucking blacklight. I had them say my clean floors failed "the blacklight test."
Have you heard of our lord and savior "putting rent in escrow until the problems are fixed" ?
You should probably show them it's above the legal limit and ask for another lease. They either don't know the law or assume you don't know your rights.
Or go through the law if you can
That's what I'm planning on doing but I'm just worried about retaliation. Are they allowed to kick me out if I don't sign the lease they've offered? I honestly don't know how that works.
It's all over email so I think I'm good as far as documentation.
I honestly don't know either, it probably depends on where you live. But if you have documentation of your contact with them such as via email, you would have a solid case against them if they don't renegotiate the lease
I am not a lawyer though
Contact the local housing authority.
If you are certain they are breaking the law it shouldn't be hard to get someone to take your case.
Also what woof said, not only can it vary state to state but county to county etc.
Don't doxx yourself obviously
Contact the local housing authority.
There is a big housing authority in my city but I thought they were mainly concerned with public housing and people on disability, etc... Would they help out a random person with a problem like this?
Doesn't hurt to ask. They might be able to point you in the right direction.
you will need to be more specific about the state
laws and options vary wildlyWarning: Not a lawyer or expert
I would double check with a housing authority under the assumption you signed a lease with an illegally large increase that you wouldn't be held to paying it after you've signed (that is that the rent increase above the amount legally allowed couldn't be taken from you despite you signing it and that you wouldn't be obliged to pay beyond that legal maximum).
If that is correct you can sign it, then just pay whatever the maximum allowed increase amount would be, if they make a fuss, sue and take them up with any housing authorities. They can't enforce an illegal contract (and I would think they also couldn't successfully evict you for non-payment of the illegal extra amount) but them having extended an agreement to you despite the illegal payment terms should mean they should lose, should have to let you keep the lease for at least the length of it (as any attempts to weasel out would I think be evidence of retaliation for ratting them out for the illegal contract and they clearly had no issues with you otherwise in offering you the contract) with only the legally allowed maximum rent being charged for the duration.
I would try and plan on having a place to move to by the time the lease is up though as there would be nothing forcing them to let you stay there after that and most landlords would just dump the old tenants, take it off the market for a month, then re-list at the higher price. And they certainly won't like you standing up for yourself which is another reason to be prepared after the end of lease date.
Don't sign this without researching that it is indeed illegal though for your specific circumstances. Some places have different rules for different types of housing like apartments versus single family homes versus section 8 housing so caps on increases may apply to one and not others. IF that is the case though you can sign without fear as they can't enforce an illegal contract and if they tried to evict you could appeal and show you paid the legally required maximum and that they tried to break the law and you should get a ruling in your favor.
As to whether they can kick you out. If you're not in a lease the answer is yes. For any or no reason. Many places have rules about a certain notice and grace period often depending on tenancy length (for example a longer length if you've been there for over a year but a shorter notice period if you've been there 6 months) but that's just a notice, maybe a cushion of 30-90 days if you're lucky though you are responsible for paying the rent they may choose to charge (the legal maximum they choose to charge anyways) during that time.
Of course this is a lot more work than just confronting them and not signing it but you risk them kicking you out whereas with this you likely are secure for a bit even with a furious land-parasite. Decide whether you'd rather spend your time playing these legal and regulatory games with them and staying on a bit longer or moving.
I don't know about US laws but I always do this. I check with the tenants org that the contract I'm getting is illegal, play dumb and sign it anyway, then I pretend that the illegal parts don't exist. If they complain and don't want to take my payments, there's a small claims procedure to send them their payments at their cost. If I need repairs and they don't do anything about it, there's a 1 week grace period before I can call someone to fix the place and deduct the cost from the payments. There's nothing they can do.
Trying to call them out would only result in them not renewing.
play dumb and sign it anyway, then I pretend that the illegal parts don’t exist.
This is not good to do in the US and could get you in more trouble than refusing to sign.
Courts in the US take the plain text of what people sign pretty seriously
That's good to know,and yet another reason to never set foot there. Hooray for Napoleonic law I guess.
Document everything. You should refuse the rent increase.
Typically the Landlord is going to have a ton of power in this relationship. Laws protecting against retaliation are difficult (meaning expensive) to enforce.
That said, some landlords are huge fuckwits and they will make a big mistake if you just keep calm and stand by your legal rights. If this happens, and it happens often, you can defeat them
It's hard to help with specifics without knowing what specific state you're in. Housing laws vary by state. Don't doxx yourself.
If you find yourself in legal trouble consider sending me a message
If you try to report them, you're just going to be retaliated against. Your options are basically "do it, and get screwed" or "try to take him on and become homeless and also screwed".
Not trying to be a downer, but they have all the power.
If you kinda follow politics in your area and the local politicians aren't too chuddy, you might be able to contact the local mayor/city council/whatever's office as well as tenent's orgs.
A friendly politician who wants to get some brownie points to help with their next election might be willing to point you towards resources, make phone calls to the landlord on your behalf, offer some politely threatening form letters, or even starting some action against the landlord that is more official in nature.
See if there's a free (or affordable) legal aid clinic in your area (or at least state if you're American). You need actual legal advice from someone who knows about your particular circumstances and the applicable laws.
Don't take the advice of a bunch of internet randoms for important shit like this without checking it first.
