Author Topic: Raising Rent In Lakewood  (Read 55099 times)

Offline coffeebean

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #380 on: September 02, 2022, 06:38:30 AM »
As mentioned many times in this thread, there are many instances where you can’t legally, contractually, or halachikly raise the rent on existing tenants.
I'm trying to understand why raising is different than listing houses way above general market price. If my understanding is correct, the reason why rabbonim don't allow raising rent excessively is because we don't want people not having a place to live. So how is that different than everyone charging $2,200 for a basement?

Offline yesitsme

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #381 on: September 02, 2022, 07:56:39 AM »
The answer to this redundant argument is very simple, with an existing tenant there are emotions involved

It's better for everyone to move the emotions to the side and treat it like a pure business transaction

Offline aygart

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #382 on: September 02, 2022, 08:35:21 AM »
Are you really bringing up אונאה regarding קרקעות?
Feelings don't care about your facts

Offline WAM

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #383 on: September 07, 2022, 01:20:57 AM »
What's the standard when you hike up the rent by 60% do you also replenish the security deposit to match the new rate
why not?

Offline av83

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #384 on: September 08, 2022, 10:26:58 PM »
I have tenants for close to 10 years and have never raised their rent. The time has come now that i must sell the property I have a buyer for a decent price but they only want it either if tenants sagree to pay a fair rent amount (about 1500 more then they are paying now) or I deliver the house vacant. I am being told that in B'D I will not necessarily be able to force on them more than a 5-10% increase and it will be very difficult toi remove them. Basically they are holding my house hostage. Does anyone have a good piece of advice for me?
Update: After a lot of back and forth, aggravation and fighting I finally got the tenants to agree to the increased rent when they realized I was really serious about eviction. It seems like I would have won the eviction in BD and possibly in court as well due to a) we were on a month by month lease b) their being there was an obvious obstruction of my being able to sell the house. c) I offered them a reasonable alternative (Pay increased rent) so i don't need to worry about being not "yosher". Lesson to be learnt: If you are buying a house and expect/need to increase the rent once you move in be smart and put it onto the seller, (like what my buyer did) the buyer will never be able to raise the rent more than xx% (in Lakewood) and you wont be able to evict because your evicting to get higher rent but it would be easier for the seller to evict since he is evicting in order to sell the house.

Offline Moshe123

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #385 on: September 09, 2022, 01:10:11 AM »
Thanks for the update.

Offline ae123

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #386 on: September 09, 2022, 08:37:23 AM »
It seems that R' Forcheimher & R' Felder are no longer capping the raise at 5% a year for owner-occupied dwellings, after being shown that there is no dina d'malchusa regarding this.
Not good news for tenants.

Offline imayid2

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #387 on: September 09, 2022, 09:12:59 AM »
It seems that R' Forcheimher & R' Felder are no longer capping the raise at 5% a year for owner-occupied dwellings, after being shown that there is no dina d'malchusa regarding this.
Not good news for tenants.
Unless it’s in the contract.

Offline Realshlomo

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #388 on: September 09, 2022, 11:51:33 AM »
It seems that R' Forcheimher & R' Felder are no longer capping the raise at 5% a year for owner-occupied dwellings, after being shown that there is no dina d'malchusa regarding this.
Not good news for tenants.
But a non owner occupied rental its capped at 5%?

Offline ae123

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #389 on: September 09, 2022, 12:37:28 PM »
But a non owner occupied rental its capped at 5%?
That's what they told me, but you can discuss with them directly.

Offline jye

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #390 on: November 27, 2022, 02:55:13 PM »
It seems that R' Forcheimher & R' Felder are no longer capping the raise at 5% a year for owner-occupied dwellings, after being shown that there is no dina d'malchusa regarding this.
Not good news for tenants.
Neither is another well known choshen mishpat posek in town. He is suggesting that it would be mentchlach for landlords to go halfway between the old rent+5% and what a new tenant would pay.

Offline ae123

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #391 on: November 28, 2022, 03:02:20 PM »
Neither is another well known choshen mishpat posek in town. He is suggesting that it would be mentchlach for landlords to go halfway between the old rent+5% and what a new tenant would pay.
I heard this from R' D. Kahan as well.
Is that what people are actually doing? It can still be a raise of about $400 in many cases.

Offline jye

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #392 on: November 28, 2022, 10:57:29 PM »
I heard this from R' D. Kahan as well.
Is that what people are actually doing? It can still be a raise of about $400 in many cases.
OTOH not raising can mean leaving almost $10,000 annually on the table. That’s quite a gift to be giving to one’s tenant when one is fully entitled to raise to the market rate. A compromise seems reasonable, especially considering that all expenses associated with rental apartments have shot up as well; appliances, repairs, landscaping, taxes, insurance etc.

Offline aygart

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #393 on: November 28, 2022, 11:22:40 PM »


when one is fully entitled to raise to the market rate.
The vast majority of those already did.
Feelings don't care about your facts

Offline Yakov15

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #394 on: November 28, 2022, 11:27:03 PM »
OTOH not raising can mean leaving almost $10,000 annually on the table. That’s quite a gift to be giving to one’s tenant when one is fully entitled to raise to the market rate. A compromise seems reasonable, especially considering that all expenses associated with rental apartments have shot up as well; appliances, repairs, landscaping, taxes, insurance etc.
Did taxes and insurance really go up so much? How much money towards appliances are you spending on your tenant. As for landscaping, lol. Go raise the rent $400 a month, but don’t think you’re a mensch too.

Eta: according to you a $5k gift does make sense?

Offline jye

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #395 on: November 29, 2022, 01:17:17 AM »
The vast majority of those already did.
For new tenants. The rabbonim are now telling existing owner occupied landlords that they are halachicly entitled to bring the existing tenants rent up to market. I don’t think the vast majority have.

Offline jye

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #396 on: November 29, 2022, 01:27:46 AM »
Did taxes and insurance really go up so much? How much money towards appliances are you spending on your tenant. As for landscaping, lol. Go raise the rent $400 a month, but don’t think you’re a mensch too.

Eta: according to you a $5k gift does make sense?
That’s what פשרה is about. It’s not fair to ask the landlord to leave 10k on the table. It’s not menchlach to raise the tenant by that sum all at once. Try to meet somewhere in the middle. I’m assuming that where that Rav came up with his suggestion.

I’m not advocating either way, just laying out the צד. For those who haven’t raised in three or four years, costs have indeed gone up. If one’s basement rental was originally covering the homes taxes and insurance as well as maintenance on the rental, that is likely no longer the case today.

Offline Yakov15

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #397 on: November 29, 2022, 01:46:37 AM »
That’s what פשרה is about. It’s not fair to ask the landlord to leave 10k on the table. It’s not menchlach to raise the tenant by that sum all at once. Try to meet somewhere in the middle. I’m assuming that where that Rav came up with his suggestion.

I’m not advocating either way, just laying out the צד. For those who haven’t raised in three or four years, costs have indeed gone up. If one’s basement rental was originally covering the homes taxes and insurance as well as maintenance on the rental, that is likely no longer the case today.
I believe a basement rental paying the old rent prices does cover those costs. Though I understand that’s not your point.

Offline jye

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #398 on: November 29, 2022, 03:01:24 AM »
I guess ymmv. Take a 3500 sq ft home with a three bedroom rented for 1225. Taxes are somewhere around 15-16k. Insurance 2-2.5k maintenance maybe 1k-2k per year on avg. that’s already over by a nice amount.

Offline jye

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Re: Raising Rent In Lakewood
« Reply #399 on: November 29, 2022, 03:28:31 AM »
Go raise the rent $400 a month, but don’t think you’re a mensch too.

That’s quite a blanket statement. If you’re talking about a wealthy homeowner and a struggling yungerman in the basement I can here that, but more often than not the landlord has as much financial need as the tenant downstairs, and often even more. There can also be other factors. I had a neighbor who realized his tenant had his own investment home which he was renting out. He felt like he was simply subsidizing the tenants house by charging the tenant so little, so he raised him to market. Shortly thereafter the tenant decided to move to his home once the arbitrage was no longer a factor.
« Last Edit: November 29, 2022, 03:32:33 AM by jye »