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Really wish this would extend to apartment rent applications. I'm fine with a credit check, but they don't need to know how high they can increase my rent befor

Really wish this would extend to apartment rent applications. I'm fine with a credit check, but they don't need to know how high they can increase my rent before I'll need to move. edit I am referring to my experience renting apartments from Property Management run communities. (Think Essex or Prometheus) Rent increases every year with them.

distances 9y ago
Isn't the rent usually fixed and known to all renters-to-be? Or did I miss your meaning?
- alphonsegaston 9y ago
  Believe the parent is referring to year over year increases, which are quite common in hot markets. A lot of landlords will jack up rents when it comes time to renew your lease, especially if they know there is room to squeeze you.
- rpowers 9y ago
  At apartments organized by property management companies, the rent typically goes up every year. By providing your income, you give them a maximum they can easily creep the rent towards.
- MBCook 9y ago
  The first contract term is. The implication is by knowing your salary they can do a much better job guessing how high they can raise your rent the next year (or whatever) without you leaving.
- deleted 9y ago
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deleted 9y ago
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kingnothing 9y ago
That's ridiculous. Landlords need to know that you're financially able to cover your rent. Typically, that's a rent of up to 1/3 of your monthly gross. You can generally also show a landlord that you have a significant amount in liquid assets in lieu of providing your salary information.
mamon 9y ago
They really do that in America? I rented a lot of apartments in my country and was never asked about my income, or had a credit check. The usual way of avoiding not paying renters is requiring first rent plus guarantee deposit (usually equal to the one month rent) in advance. No further proofs of financial credibility required.
- ryan-c 9y ago
  I've never rented an apartment in the US where they didn't do a credit check. Some places want a pay stub or some other proof of financial means. In a lot of parts of the US it can take several months to evict someone.
- CodeWriter23 9y ago
  How fast can a non-paying renter be legally removed from the property in your country? In the US, someone with no legal skills can drag it out for 6-18 months by asserting various nonsense.
  - astura 9y ago
    Why is the comment downvoted? It's not wrong. Sure, it's not common but it can and does happen. People who work the system are called "serial evictees." https://archives.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/how-renters-work-the-system-to-live-for-free-in-one-of-americas-most-expensive-cities/Content?oid=2168672 https://archives.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/how-renters-work-... >Depending on the vigilance of the landlord, a seasoned serial evictee like Getzow can get away with a minimum of 45 days and sometimes up to a year of free rent. The actual number of serial evictees operating in San Francisco is difficult to track, but some attorneys who specialize in representing landlords estimate there are between 20 and 100.
    - CodeWriter23 9y ago
      Thanks. The people in the unit adjacent to one of my dear friends are serial evictees. At this point, they haven’t paid rent in 8 months, and the landlord is totally on it, working to get them out legally.
usaar333 9y ago
You can always write a salary lower than what you make.. Regardless, it's rarely in your own interest to conceal it unless you have privacy concerns. 1. Landlords are going to prefer candidates with higher salaries. 2. It's really unclear to me that landlords use your salary to determine rent increases. e.g. My rent has always been well under what could be covered by my salary and I'd move long before it reaches that point.
- FireBeyond 9y ago
  > You can always write a salary lower than what you make.. It's... optimistic... that you think they're going to take you at face value when you do so, rather than requiring employment / income verification. And in most cases, "the information on this application is true to the best of my knowledge and I understand that my application may be rejected if I provide false information"...
  - usaar333 9y ago
    The majority of landlords I've had haven't validated income information.
  - astura 9y ago
    I guess you can write "Over [some reasonable number]" on your application and not be lying.
mundo 9y ago
Do you have any reason to think they do this? With "this" meaning "give higher rent hikes to tenants with high incomes than they otherwise would've." It doesn't sound remotely plausible to me.
- FireBeyond 9y ago
  I guarantee it. Some PM companies I'd rate lower than debt collection agencies on the ethics scale. See my sibling comment, promising owners they'd find ways to apply the maximum possible rent increases.
  - mundo 9y ago
    "It sounds like something those jerks would do" is the absolute least persuasive reason you could've given. Here's why I think it's implausbile: * It's hard for me to believe this practice would be profitable. The revenue would be pretty small (since it only applies to lease renewals, not the initial lease at the advertised price), and it would presumably increase turnover, which is one of a landlord's biggest costs. * If this is common practice, why is it not common knowledge? It would be clickbait gold, and any two tenants in a big building full of identical units could compare notes and put two and two together, to say nothing of the hundreds or thousands of office workes in property management companies that would have to be aware of it. I looked around for about two minutes and didn't find any articles denouncing it, so it seems likely to be either false or the subject of a remarkably effective cover-up.
FireBeyond 9y ago
Yeah, a PM company around here (Olympia, WA) had two separate websites, one targeted at renters, one at landlords. Nothing was mentioned on the renter site, and verbal promises (worth the paper they're written on, etc., etc.) made to renters said that they "heavily discouraged arbitrary rent increases as they felt properties were priced fairly in consultation with the owner"... Meanwhile on the owner / landlord site: "We ensure you get the maximum return on your investment, including yearly rental increases of the maximum allowed by law or as close to it as possible". Awkward moment for the PM showing me a place when I showed her that website and asked her to reconcile the two positions.
acty1 9y ago
Clearly you have never been a landlord. You realize that a lot of people have NO sense of budget and will be DOA the moment they take possession of a rental? We literally look at the tenants ability to STAY A FLOAT so we do not harm them, their credit and also our pockets too. You took the most cynical and 1 sided outlook. There are WAY more people that would get themselves under water (financial and budget illiterate) vs. the situation you describe. Your bias is betraying you.

distances 9y ago

Isn't the rent usually fixed and known to all renters-to-be? Or did I miss your meaning?

alphonsegaston 9y ago
Believe the parent is referring to year over year increases, which are quite common in hot markets. A lot of landlords will jack up rents when it comes time to renew your lease, especially if they know there is room to squeeze you.
rpowers 9y ago
At apartments organized by property management companies, the rent typically goes up every year. By providing your income, you give them a maximum they can easily creep the rent towards.
MBCook 9y ago
The first contract term is. The implication is by knowing your salary they can do a much better job guessing how high they can raise your rent the next year (or whatever) without you leaving.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

kingnothing 9y ago

That's ridiculous. Landlords need to know that you're financially able to cover your rent. Typically, that's a rent of up to 1/3 of your monthly gross. You can generally also show a landlord that you have a significant amount in liquid assets in lieu of providing your salary information.

mamon 9y ago

They really do that in America? I rented a lot of apartments in my country and was never asked about my income, or had a credit check. The usual way of avoiding not paying renters is requiring first rent plus guarantee deposit (usually equal to the one month rent) in advance. No further proofs of financial credibility required.

ryan-c 9y ago
I've never rented an apartment in the US where they didn't do a credit check. Some places want a pay stub or some other proof of financial means. In a lot of parts of the US it can take several months to evict someone.
CodeWriter23 9y ago
How fast can a non-paying renter be legally removed from the property in your country? In the US, someone with no legal skills can drag it out for 6-18 months by asserting various nonsense.
- astura 9y ago
  Why is the comment downvoted? It's not wrong. Sure, it's not common but it can and does happen. People who work the system are called "serial evictees." https://archives.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/how-renters-work-the-system-to-live-for-free-in-one-of-americas-most-expensive-cities/Content?oid=2168672 https://archives.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/how-renters-work-... >Depending on the vigilance of the landlord, a seasoned serial evictee like Getzow can get away with a minimum of 45 days and sometimes up to a year of free rent. The actual number of serial evictees operating in San Francisco is difficult to track, but some attorneys who specialize in representing landlords estimate there are between 20 and 100.
  - CodeWriter23 9y ago
    Thanks. The people in the unit adjacent to one of my dear friends are serial evictees. At this point, they haven’t paid rent in 8 months, and the landlord is totally on it, working to get them out legally.

usaar333 9y ago

You can always write a salary lower than what you make.. Regardless, it's rarely in your own interest to conceal it unless you have privacy concerns. 1. Landlords are going to prefer candidates with higher salaries. 2. It's really unclear to me that landlords use your salary to determine rent increases. e.g. My rent has always been well under what could be covered by my salary and I'd move long before it reaches that point.

FireBeyond 9y ago
> You can always write a salary lower than what you make.. It's... optimistic... that you think they're going to take you at face value when you do so, rather than requiring employment / income verification. And in most cases, "the information on this application is true to the best of my knowledge and I understand that my application may be rejected if I provide false information"...
- usaar333 9y ago
  The majority of landlords I've had haven't validated income information.
- astura 9y ago
  I guess you can write "Over [some reasonable number]" on your application and not be lying.

mundo 9y ago

Do you have any reason to think they do this? With "this" meaning "give higher rent hikes to tenants with high incomes than they otherwise would've." It doesn't sound remotely plausible to me.

FireBeyond 9y ago
I guarantee it. Some PM companies I'd rate lower than debt collection agencies on the ethics scale. See my sibling comment, promising owners they'd find ways to apply the maximum possible rent increases.
- mundo 9y ago
  "It sounds like something those jerks would do" is the absolute least persuasive reason you could've given. Here's why I think it's implausbile: * It's hard for me to believe this practice would be profitable. The revenue would be pretty small (since it only applies to lease renewals, not the initial lease at the advertised price), and it would presumably increase turnover, which is one of a landlord's biggest costs. * If this is common practice, why is it not common knowledge? It would be clickbait gold, and any two tenants in a big building full of identical units could compare notes and put two and two together, to say nothing of the hundreds or thousands of office workes in property management companies that would have to be aware of it. I looked around for about two minutes and didn't find any articles denouncing it, so it seems likely to be either false or the subject of a remarkably effective cover-up.

FireBeyond 9y ago

Yeah, a PM company around here (Olympia, WA) had two separate websites, one targeted at renters, one at landlords. Nothing was mentioned on the renter site, and verbal promises (worth the paper they're written on, etc., etc.) made to renters said that they "heavily discouraged arbitrary rent increases as they felt properties were priced fairly in consultation with the owner"... Meanwhile on the owner / landlord site: "We ensure you get the maximum return on your investment, including yearly rental increases of the maximum allowed by law or as close to it as possible". Awkward moment for the PM showing me a place when I showed her that website and asked her to reconcile the two positions.

acty1 9y ago

Clearly you have never been a landlord. You realize that a lot of people have NO sense of budget and will be DOA the moment they take possession of a rental? We literally look at the tenants ability to STAY A FLOAT so we do not harm them, their credit and also our pockets too. You took the most cynical and 1 sided outlook. There are WAY more people that would get themselves under water (financial and budget illiterate) vs. the situation you describe. Your bias is betraying you.