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Request for legal knowledge and general advice
I meant to ask this last night but forgot amidst recounting my week's miss-adventures. Recently (two months ago) my landlord sent a very informal, undated notice that he was raising our rent. The notice did not say what for, but he told me over the phone that it was for "repairs". We are on a lease that ends in August. As I understand it, rent can not be raised during this period. My former roommate had a lawyer friend and said that he thought it can be raised ONLY if it for legitimate "property enhancement", but every resource I have found makes no such allowance. I bought a book the other day, The Tenant's Legal Guide, which says "rent can not be raised when you are on a lease until the date that it expires" (or something like that). So anyway, its not a huge increase ($74) and I am torn between fighting it and taking advantage of some much needed repairs. The only problem is that I called the landlord 3 weeks ago to ask him to fix our door (front door lock is busted) and he said he'd do it that Sunday morning, but I saw his van come and go and no work was done. Its our front door, its not exactly a low priority.
My general plan, unless I hear some advice to the contrary, was to call him and let him know that we are all starving students and $74 is a lot of money, especially considering we have been really good tenants, but that if he will see to a list of repairs that I will leave in the mail box in a timely manner we will accept the raised amount. The list of repairs that I have so far is a page and a half long. The place was NOT in great shape when we moved in, even though we keep it clean and nice, and a lot has been left unattended to. If he's going to raise the rent, I'm going to nit-pick. And he'd better start with the door.
What do you think? I've never been in a head-of-household position before and the advice would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to get taken advantage of, but I don't want to start a war either and I like living there.
I meant to ask this last night but forgot amidst recounting my week's miss-adventures. Recently (two months ago) my landlord sent a very informal, undated notice that he was raising our rent. The notice did not say what for, but he told me over the phone that it was for "repairs". We are on a lease that ends in August. As I understand it, rent can not be raised during this period. My former roommate had a lawyer friend and said that he thought it can be raised ONLY if it for legitimate "property enhancement", but every resource I have found makes no such allowance. I bought a book the other day, The Tenant's Legal Guide, which says "rent can not be raised when you are on a lease until the date that it expires" (or something like that). So anyway, its not a huge increase ($74) and I am torn between fighting it and taking advantage of some much needed repairs. The only problem is that I called the landlord 3 weeks ago to ask him to fix our door (front door lock is busted) and he said he'd do it that Sunday morning, but I saw his van come and go and no work was done. Its our front door, its not exactly a low priority.
My general plan, unless I hear some advice to the contrary, was to call him and let him know that we are all starving students and $74 is a lot of money, especially considering we have been really good tenants, but that if he will see to a list of repairs that I will leave in the mail box in a timely manner we will accept the raised amount. The list of repairs that I have so far is a page and a half long. The place was NOT in great shape when we moved in, even though we keep it clean and nice, and a lot has been left unattended to. If he's going to raise the rent, I'm going to nit-pick. And he'd better start with the door.
What do you think? I've never been in a head-of-household position before and the advice would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to get taken advantage of, but I don't want to start a war either and I like living there.