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I also live in a rent-controlled apartment in SF. I'm not sure what the particular policy in Boston is, but here they can increase the rent by 3%/year (I think)
by toby 18y ago
I also live in a rent-controlled apartment in SF. I'm not sure what the particular policy in Boston is, but here they can increase the rent by 3%/year (I think) while I live there. After I leave, they can reset it to whatever they like.
So, in principle, if market rents increase a lot, the landlord has an incentive for me to leave. I think there's another side to this though: I've been a great tenant for a while and always pay on time -- if I leave, he runs the risk of getting a scammer who just won't pay and will take a year to evict.
Also, since I've locked in a nice rate, I have an incentive to stay and even make minor improvements (like clearing all the dead growth from the patio, etc.)
I think rent control probably is not a great idea in many places, but in SF it seems to work. My pet theory is that the boom-bust cycle here is much more severe and without rent control the city would have no stable population.
- jmtulloss 18y agoThe question for both of you is how did you get the rent controlled apartment? I bet it wasn't through craigslist. Everybody I know in the city who lives under rent control (which, admittedly, is not very many) found their places through friends. Not that it's a bad thing, but it supports the idea that you have to be "connected" to get a place. Maybe not a lawyer or a judge, but having been around the city helps.
- timr 18y agoI got mine through craigslist. So did the other people I know who live in rent-controlled places.
- ojbyrne 18y agoI lived in a rent-controlled apt in SF that I found through craiglist. It wasn't cheap, nor squalid - Similar to what the other people say. My experiences over 20 years of renting also say - landlords treat good tenants like gold - if you don't make noise, don't sell drugs, and pay on time, they generally are happy to not raise your rent.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- toby 18y agoIt was through Craigslist... the deal is that every building in San Francisco built before a certain year (I don't remember which year) is rent controlled, so you don't really need a connection. The year cutoff is, I assume, to encourage developers to build new rental properties. There was a proposition to ban rent control in California, which failed to pass.
- jmtulloss 18y agoInteresting. I've had trouble finding a rent controlled apartment through craigslist. I'll have to look harder in the future.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]