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Well I guess you can always try to negotiate a rate you feel is fair or tell them you will agree to the new rent amount if its for a 30 month lease. Can't hurt to try and get creative.
I agree with what others have said. Your landlord has every right to raise the rent when your lease term is up, even if it puts them over surrounding rates. If the rate has raised $375 in 4 years, it is possible it was underpriced to begin with, or that rents in your area have just gone up that much in 4 years. It is possible that they really are doing you a favor. If you moved, they may rent it back out for $450 more and are only charging you $375 more. That is a favor. We do that a lot for good tenants we don't want to lose. Doesn't mean we don't raise the rent, it means we raise it less than we would normally.
If your landlord gave you notice that the rent was increasing, if you stay and don't pay the new amount, they can evict you. That goes on your public record, and will make it extremely difficult to rent anything in the future (for the rest of your life, since public records don't drop off after any time period). Either pay the new amount or move, those are your choices.
As for your most recent post, the landlord has the right to do a walkthrough with proper notice. If it isn't in your lease, it is most likely in state law or landlord/tenant guidelines. Most landlords do this at lease renewal time. It is normal.
It is also in most leases that no non-operating cars are to be stored at the rental, and all cars need to be able to fit in a garage (if the house has one). These may not be in your lease, but they are normal, and don't really surprise me either. Did you disclose all these vehicles to your landlord when you signed the lease? I know if I have a tenant signing a lease who has more vehicles than will fit in the garage, we have conversation about them and whether it will be allowed or whether they need to make other arrangements. So again, it may not be in the lease, in which case, the landlord could have been in the wrong here, depending on what exactly the lease, CCRs and city code DO say, but either way, it doesn't really surprise me, as this is fairly normal operating procedure.
In the end, if all you are wanting to do is to stay an extra 30 days without signing a new lease, let your landlord know that. They'll let you know at what rent rate they are willing to allow that. At that point, you can agree and pay the new amount or move at the end of the original notice or make them evict you and mess up your rental history forever. Those are your choices.
Oh, and paying rent on time isn't the only thing landlords notice. We had a tenant once, rented from us for 8 years. Paid rent on time 99% of the time, took fabulous care of the property (usually one of the best looking ones on the street). Despite that, I despised him. Any time we did have any sort of issue at the house, it was a MAJOR fight. I called the wife once to schedule a plumber to get in to do some minor repair the tenant had asked for, and the husband called me back and yelled at me for like 30 minutes because I called her instead of him (she was home, he wasn't, and I had never been instructed to schedule anything through him only). Another time, we sent a notice out that said we would like them to renew their lease and were NOT going to be raising their rent that year. That resulted in a visit to the office to scream at us about the fact that we sent a written notice (they said they deserved a call because they were "better" than all our other tenants). I almost called the police on him that day. We were not sad to see them move, regardless of their good qualities. We would never rent to them again in the future, despite knowing we would get rent and the place would be well cared for.
My point is that you might think you are the best tenant in the world (most tenants think that, in my experience), but the landlord may not agree. The reason I posted the above story is because your posts reminded me of that tenant. Not necessarily the temper part, but the "I'm better than all other tenants, so they should leave me alone" part. I basically read your story as "They should want to keep us at all costs, we are the best tenants they will ever have. How dare they do a walkthrough to make sure the place is in good condition. How dare they make us keep the property looking good. We should be allowed to do what we want, because everyone loves us. We should pay the same low rent for as long as we want to live here, even if it is way below market rate, because we are awesome." I'm sure that wasn't your intention, but that is how it reads.
It seems to me that you are unhappy and your best option is to move at the end of the 60 day notice that you were given.
If nothing else, your landlord can evict you for "overstay". Meaning you did not move when you were given legal notice to vacate. It is not affected by whether or not you pay partial rent. If you are given notice to move, you will be moving, either voluntarily or when the sheriff throws your belongings out into the gutter.
It sounds like you have enough money that the landlord can actually collect if he gets a judgment against you, so you have a lot to lose if you refuse to play by the rules.
Lacerta, wasn't trying to construe that we're the best tenants in the world but that we're good tenants and I think that should be valued. Keep us at all costs? I don't know about that but to say that they'll rent to us for comp minus $100 is doing us a favor and that they could rent the place for comp value is laughable. I almost want to move out just to prove them wrong. Yes, place was "under priced" when we moved it but they had to drop the rent in order to get someone to move in. Prior to us moving in the place sat empty for months. So what does it tell you when you have to drop your price in order to land a tenant? Maybe that you're asking too much, right?
We might not be the easiest to deal with but we have realistic expectations. One "sticking" point with us is that the place we lived in before this was broken into and ransacked while the LL was foreclosing and had the place up for short sale so there was a key box which apparently is like a welcoming matt for intruders. Since then we refuse to let anyone in the house without someone else being there so maintenance is only done while we're home or we ask that the prop manager be there to supervise. So, not exactly easy but a pretty minor request considering that having your home broken into strips you of all senses of security.
Number of vehicles hasn't changed since we first moved in in 2009. They just up and decided that they didn't like my truck in the driveway. I read lease and hoa regs and I was not in violation of either. I asked them to show me written complaints and they could not produce any. They did the walk through AFTER we already signed the lease and they gave us the renewal months after the previous lease had ended. They wanted me to move car out of garage and put truck into garage AFTER 3 years of having it the way it was. If the number of cars I had in 2009 was a problem they shouldn't have leased the house to us in the first place. It apparently wasn't a problem in 2009 but all of a sudden it was in 2012. That's bogus.
We already have letter of ref from prop manager basically saying we are perfect tenants - probably because we're pretty damn good tenants. Staying to "hold over" without signing the new lease sounds like an unwise choice. I just feel like I'm stuck dealing with a lousy LL who is leveraging us for more money because they know we don't want to move. Honestly that's what's really going on and that's what gets under my skin. We'll just keep paying more and more money forever and ever because they know we love the place and don't want to leave. Well there will eventually be a tipping point and it might be happening now.
Part of this almost feels fabricated. I knew in the back of my mind that the LL would never drop to the level of living in a 2 bed town home. They really played it out by coming over with tape measures and going through the house saying 'oh we can put the big sofa here and the entertainment center over there blah blah blah…" then magically a week later they're buying a house and we can stay but we're going to have to pay more. Something about this whole thing stinks. These people are unscrupulous and I HATE having unscrupulous LLs but this place is perfect for us!! We're so torn! We'd live here forever but the LL sucks!
Anyways, thanks for the common sense replays. I am a little jaded and upset and was wanting some different perspectives on the situation which is what I got like it or not. Game plan is to try and negotiate a better deal or move I guess. Oh well.
Not in a position to buy a house. Southern California is insane and I will never own here. Regarding comps, I guess I should be more clear. Other places in area that they are comping to have more bedrooms, are single level (ours is two story), have gardener included (we do all yard maintainence), have nicer cabinets and appliances, etc. The other places that are going for more are doing so because they are legitimately worth more while our place is not. So, let me rephrase my original statement - they think they're doing us a favor by keeping the rent $100 below "comp" value when places they're comping too are bigger and nicer. The places they're comping to are in our same community so I know exactly what they're looking at down to specific addresses. I understand business but I don't appreciate greed.
I would point these things out to them. If they were to rent to someone else, they may have to ask for lower rates because of the quality of their cabinets, because they don't provide landscaping, etc.
Negotiate for sure! I would. If they refuse, then look for something cheaper and move out.
My mom got greedy once and tried to raise the rent $100 on a tenant (I told her it's too much) and he moved out and THEN she was only able to rent the place when she lowered rent $100 by what the previous tenant paid!
No, I'm fearful I won't find a comp because there's nothing on the market at all right now so their 60 day notice is going to effectively give us 30 days because there's next to nothing available now. I'm not saying I won't find comparable place ever - I'm saying im not going to find one during this time of year which we haven't. I want to hold over at least another 30 days to buy myself sometime to either find new place or try to negotiate a batter deal.
This is simple. Ask the property mgr about staying month-to-month but with the new rent increase. This way you don't sign a year lease. This will buy you another couple months to find a new rental.
Don't sign a new yearly lease if you don't plan to stay another year. If they don't want a month to month, maybe you get them to agree to a 3 month lease as part of your negotiation. But try your best for month-to-month. I think it's mainly the new rent they want.
Well I felt compelled to do a little digging this morning and I decided to stop by the house in our community that was most recently on the market that I'm sure my LL is referencing for comp value (it rented for the exact value that they're saying comp value is). Call it luck but the tenant of this new place was outside watering some plants when I walked up and was very inviting and helpful. Turns out they're MTM and are short term because the owner is planning on moving into the house this coming summer. Turns out the tenant is in real estate and when asked about my situation they said that felt that my LL's suggested comp value was too high all things considered. But knowing that these people are paying so much because they're short term and MTM is just the news I needed to hear. I think I have my bargaining chip now.
Well I felt compelled to do a little digging this morning and I decided to stop by the house in our community that was most recently on the market that I'm sure my LL is referencing for comp value (it rented for the exact value that they're saying comp value is). Call it luck but the tenant of this new place was outside watering some plants when I walked up and was very inviting and helpful. Turns out they're MTM and are short term because the owner is planning on moving into the house this coming summer. Turns out the tenant is in real estate and when asked about my situation they said that felt that my LL's suggested comp value was too high all things considered. But knowing that these people are paying so much because they're short term and MTM is just the news I needed to hear. I think I have my bargaining chip now.
What bargaining chip? Your neighbor and his opinion? Oh my.....
Look, either you sign the lease or you don't...those are your only options..your landlord doesn't have to negotiate anything with you. I find it amusing that you think you have something on your landlord and you can force him to agree to YOUR terms. Wow...you really are entitled.
I'm trying to make sense of this. You say you can't possibly find a new place quickly. Sounds to me like that is the only piece of information your LL is going to care about since it seems to indicate a shortage of housing. Which would also seem to imply he will have no problems renting the place to someone else.
Of course I'm going to try and negotiate a better deal. Nothing says I can't. Forcing my LL to to my terms? Right, like I'm holding a gun to their head and making them offer us less. I think I have a legitimate argument now that I know they place they're comping is MTM and short term. Is a MTM short term occupancy the same as a long term leased tenant? No, it isn't. We shouldn't be compared to the same level as a short term MTM occupancy. Of course MTM is going to pay more. They could pick up and move out any time.
You guys are forgetting that they were forcing us out until last week and if you check your calendars you'll notice it's the week of Christmas - THERE IS NOTHING AVAILABLE NOW. That's what was originally stressing us out is the lack of properties to choose from at all. Now they tell us we can stay which is good because we never wanted to leave in the first place BUT that caveat is that they jacked up the rent. They jacked it up because they say comps are higher but the comps aren't even comparable! If that's there reason for raising my rent I'm going to argue against them that their comp value is BS for the reasons previously mentioned. If they don't budge then we'll pack up and leave and their house will be empty while it sits on the market at too high a price.
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