5 ms·

My landlord offered me $35K to move out

17 points by prostoalex 8y ago

techbio 8y ago
Rent control basically doesn't exist outside of NYC, DC, LA, and Bay Area: http://landlord.com/rent_control_laws_by_state.htm http://landlord.com/rent_control_laws_by_state.htm
- mrlatinos 8y ago
  Liberals still don't understand free markets
  - dang 8y ago
    Please don't post ideological battle comments to HN.
- reustle 8y ago
  I think it exists across large parts of Europe (at least in Germany) from what I've heard. The reason Berlin is still so cheap is because they're legally not allowed to raise the rents much.
ebikelaw 8y ago
$35k, that's cute. A friend of mine was the tenant of a rent-controlled victorian house in SF's mission and the landlord's heirs paid him a quarter million to get lost. He took the money and bought a house in Oregon. The landlords sold the building for over $4 million. They had been paying property taxes on an assessment of about $100k.
- kovrik 8y ago
  Sorry, maybe I'm just tired, but I think I'm missing something. I live in New Zealand and here it is a normal practice for landlords to offer a fixed-term tenancy agreement for 6-12 month. When it expires, then landlord/tenant can decide whether they want to sign another one (fixed-term), otherwise it becomes periodic. Isn't it the case in US? I mean what's the point of wasting $250k if you can just wait for 6-12 months? Or why can't they sell the building with a tenant? Why move out, what's the problem? It is a common practice here in NZ too.
  - fencepost 8y ago
    In rent controlled units you're basically able to stay as long as you pay the rent. Attempts to get people out of those units are frequently underhanded and regularly cross into criminal or civilly actionable, but the people targeted are often poor and don't have the resources to fight back. For more information on some of the tactics used, just search for "Jared Kushner rent control".
    - ebikelaw 8y ago
      That's also true of any property in San Francisco, rent control notwithstanding. As long as one pays the rent, one is at home. There is a lot of jurisprudence around this. For example, if I live in a property for 30 days, I am the tenant. AirBnB dabblers have unintentionally rented their units out this way. Also if I send you a check for the rent, and if I write "rent" on the check, and you cash it, I am the tenant. Basically, under the law in California and specifically in San Francisco, the home belongs to the person who lives there, not the person who holds the title.
      - fencepost 8y ago
        Right, but if you're not in a rent controlled unit my expectation is that the landlord can adjust the rent as high as they'd like at the end of each 6-12 month lease.
        dragonwriter 8y ago
        > Right, but if you're not in a rent controlled unit my expectation is that the landlord can adjust the rent as high as they'd like at the end of each 6-12 month lease. Depends on the lease terms; the current place I live we had an un-the-lease $50/mo. limit on increases for the first two annual renewals. Also been in month-to-month leases where in principal the rent could increase at any time without limit for m with 30 days notice.
  - refurb 8y ago
    In SF, you can only be kicked out for serious violations or when the owners take the unit off the market (and can’t rent it again for 5 years). Otherwise you can stay as long as you pay rent. As a landlord in SF you lose a lot of rights to your property.
gamblor956 8y ago
Down the street from their apartment (presumably the building next to the Emerson, or else the Bunker Hill Tower Apartments down the hill) are 2 bedroom units in a nice apartment complex in the heart of Little Tokyo (built within the last 3 years) that a month ago were available for $2400... Blows their argument about rent costs out of the water. They're just humble-bragging about the size of their buyout offer.
refurb 8y ago
Gross calls what’s happening an “economic ethnic cleansing.” Jesus. He’s comparing people being paid to move out to genocide. That might be a tad overboard.
- tomjakubowski 8y ago
  "Ethnic cleansing" doesn't mean the same thing as "genocide". If, say, Poland decided next week to deport everyone with a German surname from the country, that would qualify as ethnic cleansing, even though it is clearly not genocide because no one was killed.

17 points by prostoalex 8y ago

Rent control basically doesn't exist outside of NYC, DC, LA, and Bay Area: http://landlord.com/rent_control_laws_by_state.htm http://landlord.com/rent_control_laws_by_state.htm

mrlatinos 8y ago
Liberals still don't understand free markets
- dang 8y ago
  Please don't post ideological battle comments to HN.
reustle 8y ago
I think it exists across large parts of Europe (at least in Germany) from what I've heard. The reason Berlin is still so cheap is because they're legally not allowed to raise the rents much.

ebikelaw 8y ago

$35k, that's cute. A friend of mine was the tenant of a rent-controlled victorian house in SF's mission and the landlord's heirs paid him a quarter million to get lost. He took the money and bought a house in Oregon. The landlords sold the building for over $4 million. They had been paying property taxes on an assessment of about $100k.

kovrik 8y ago
Sorry, maybe I'm just tired, but I think I'm missing something. I live in New Zealand and here it is a normal practice for landlords to offer a fixed-term tenancy agreement for 6-12 month. When it expires, then landlord/tenant can decide whether they want to sign another one (fixed-term), otherwise it becomes periodic. Isn't it the case in US? I mean what's the point of wasting $250k if you can just wait for 6-12 months? Or why can't they sell the building with a tenant? Why move out, what's the problem? It is a common practice here in NZ too.
- fencepost 8y ago
  In rent controlled units you're basically able to stay as long as you pay the rent. Attempts to get people out of those units are frequently underhanded and regularly cross into criminal or civilly actionable, but the people targeted are often poor and don't have the resources to fight back. For more information on some of the tactics used, just search for "Jared Kushner rent control".
  - ebikelaw 8y ago
    That's also true of any property in San Francisco, rent control notwithstanding. As long as one pays the rent, one is at home. There is a lot of jurisprudence around this. For example, if I live in a property for 30 days, I am the tenant. AirBnB dabblers have unintentionally rented their units out this way. Also if I send you a check for the rent, and if I write "rent" on the check, and you cash it, I am the tenant. Basically, under the law in California and specifically in San Francisco, the home belongs to the person who lives there, not the person who holds the title.
    - fencepost 8y ago
      Right, but if you're not in a rent controlled unit my expectation is that the landlord can adjust the rent as high as they'd like at the end of each 6-12 month lease.
      - dragonwriter 8y ago
        > Right, but if you're not in a rent controlled unit my expectation is that the landlord can adjust the rent as high as they'd like at the end of each 6-12 month lease. Depends on the lease terms; the current place I live we had an un-the-lease $50/mo. limit on increases for the first two annual renewals. Also been in month-to-month leases where in principal the rent could increase at any time without limit for m with 30 days notice.
- refurb 8y ago
  In SF, you can only be kicked out for serious violations or when the owners take the unit off the market (and can’t rent it again for 5 years). Otherwise you can stay as long as you pay rent. As a landlord in SF you lose a lot of rights to your property.

gamblor956 8y ago

Down the street from their apartment (presumably the building next to the Emerson, or else the Bunker Hill Tower Apartments down the hill) are 2 bedroom units in a nice apartment complex in the heart of Little Tokyo (built within the last 3 years) that a month ago were available for $2400... Blows their argument about rent costs out of the water. They're just humble-bragging about the size of their buyout offer.

refurb 8y ago

Gross calls what’s happening an “economic ethnic cleansing.” Jesus. He’s comparing people being paid to move out to genocide. That might be a tad overboard.

tomjakubowski 8y ago
"Ethnic cleansing" doesn't mean the same thing as "genocide". If, say, Poland decided next week to deport everyone with a German surname from the country, that would qualify as ethnic cleansing, even though it is clearly not genocide because no one was killed.