Tips for negotiating lease renewal?

Long story short, just got a notice for renewal for the current house we're renting in the mail. Rent is going up $30/month. Small peanuts, i know, but after the absolute hell this berkeleying dump has put me through this current year, i feel like it's overpriced to begin with.

But at the same time, berkeley moving again.

There's been over a dozen contractor visits in the last 9 months, and we still have outstanding issues. None of them seem to be serious anymore, but i'm a bit peeved that the house LOOKS jankier than where we started due to sub-par work from these moronic contractors, and i'm not so jazzed about paying MORE for a place that on the surface is not as nice as the place we moved into.

Currently paying $1040, renewal terms are $1070.

After all the days i had to take off from work for the contractors, the annoyance, and that we still have two outstanding issues that contractors haven't followed up on (i know the contractors aren't my landlord, but they're contracted to them, so why are they not following up on clearly open maintenance requests?), i'd really like to pay more like $900/month, would find anything under $1000/month acceptable.

But if it really comes down to it, i'll get bent over for another $360 just so i don't have to move again less than a year after we moved in.

I'm guessing this is what the management company is banking on, so i'm probably screwed no matter what.

Any tips? Would i be better off drafting a letter that says "I'll renew for this price if issue A, B, C, and D are fixed before the end of my current leasing period?"

Step one: Find a place and be ready to move.
Step two: Draft the letter, and demand that the rent stay the same.
Step three: Was there ever an extended period of time that the heat was out? Or water? Maybe hold that over their heads.

The fact is that you DO have negotiating room. $360 more is what they are trying to get. But if the place sits empty for just one month, that is $1040 that they're out.

mtn wrote: Step one: Find a place and be ready to move. Step two: Draft the letter, and demand that the rent stay the same. Step three: Was there ever an extended period of time that the heat was out? Or water? Maybe hold that over their heads. The fact is that you DO have negotiating room. $360 more is what they are trying to get. But if the place sits empty for just one month, that is $1040 that they're out.

Step One isn't going to happen. I don't have the time, and i'm absolutely not moving under any circumstances short of an eviction at this point in our lives.

Does that void all other steps? If so, i'll just suck it up and nurse my annoyance in some booze tonite.

As for Step 3: No... the only thing that's been out for any period of time was A/C, again because some moronic contractor needed 4 trips out over a period of a week to figure out that the relief valve or something was jacked up.

We have however, dealt with mold (and dealing with again, because the moron that "repaired" the leaking bathroom sink didn't do a good job and it leaked again, so now the vanity has mold in it. Again), the toilet draining into the berkeleying walls by the bathroom, which caused a large chunk of drywall to fall out of the ceiling in the garage, and the same moron that couldn't fix a sink leak properly failed to install a trap in the pipe when he installed the new vanity because he couldn't figure out how to do it. (I think? I mean... oh no, the vanity is now 4" higher, the plumbing is just too hard to figure out.) I believe no trap is against code, and it took about 2 months for them to find a contractor that wasn't too flaky to miss appointments all the time.

It's been a nightmare, and honestly the management company has been on the ball 95% of the time, and pleasant to deal with. The house just sucks (mostly due to shoddy contractor work, bones are good), and more importantly, these contractors are the most inept people i've ever met in my life.

Mold is a healthcode violation in 3 states that I have lived in. You might want to bring that to the attention of the responsible parties.

I would negotiate down because of it.

Careful, rental prices are they the roof!!! I was going to take a job out out state in CLT and had to turn it down because I could not find an affordable rental home. Rental prices are nuts. A lot rental places are now charging by square footage as the rental price but quite a few are even higher at this rate, it cheaper to buy a house but I can't do that either since I own one.

Definitely does not void the other points. They don't know you're bluffing.

Buying a house isn't an option right now. I know it's cheaper, but SWMBO is in school right now and stability/status quo is more important than taking a risk to save some money. We'll buy within 12 months once she's out of school, and trust me, i can't friggin' wait at this point.

And yes, rental prices are high. $1070 for this place isn't unreasonable on the surface. It's an 1800 sqft house with almost an acre of land, old neighborhood with old growth trees isolating us from our neighbors in the back yard. Huge raised deck off the kitch/dining area, large 2 car garage, 4 car driveway, etc.

In fact, $1070 would be a steal for this place if it weren't for the shoddy contractor work.

I'm almost tempted to just fix some of it myself on my own dime, but no way i'm doing that if i'm paying full rental price. I'd consider it at $900.

Swank Force One wrote: It's an 1800 sqft house with almost an acre of land, old neighborhood with old growth trees isolating us from our neighbors in the back yard. Huge raised deck off the kitch/dining area, large 2 car garage, 4 car driveway, etc. In fact, $1070 would be a steal for this place if it weren't for the shoddy contractor

That's dirt cheap for all that. That's easily $2k a month here where I live.

Here's the magic line:

I love the place, and i would love to stay here. I believe you guys are on the ball as a management company, and you are always reasonable to deal with. However, due to issues x, y, and z, I can't justify the price increase for myself and my family.

I need either the rent to go down so I can fix the following health risks myself, or I need them to be fixed right away and due to the recurring nature of some of them, I would like to hold off on the rate increase until next year after I am convinced the problems are fixed more permanently.

Basically tell them that though you would love to, you just can't take the increase. Then, let them choose staying the same and fixing the issues or going down and letting you fix.

Sine_Qua_Non wrote:

Swank Force One wrote: It's an 1800 sqft house with almost an acre of land, old neighborhood with old growth trees isolating us from our neighbors in the back yard. Huge raised deck off the kitch/dining area, large 2 car garage, 4 car driveway, etc. In fact, $1070 would be a steal for this place if it weren't for the shoddy contractor

That's dirt cheap for all that. That's easily $2k a month here where I live.

It's not dirt cheap for this town. It's not obscene either, but it's not cheap. Me using the word "steal" was a bit strong, looking around more.

This house was purchased for $63k and near as i can tell, it MAYBE had $10k in renovations done including labor. Honestly i finished the kitchen myself because i was berkeleying sick of waiting on these undependable aholes.

They're making a mint off of me, and i'm ok with that for the moment.

rcutclif wrote: Here's the magic line: I love the place, and i would love to stay here. I believe you guys are on the ball as a management company, and you are always reasonable to deal with. However, due to issues x, y, and z, I can't justify the price increase for myself and my family. I need either the rent to go down so I can fix the following health risks myself, or I need them to be fixed right away and due to the recurring nature of some of them, I would like to hold off on the rate increase until next year after I am convinced the problems are fixed more permanently. Basically tell them that though you would love to, you just can't take the increase. Then, let them choose staying the same and fixing the issues or going down and letting you fix.

Hrmmm... good idea, thanks!