How to Negotiate with a Landlord
My landlord is asking for a 50% increase in my rent. However, my contract caps the increase to 10%. He's not budging. After the first negotiation, he went down to 40%. What are the next steps I should take?
a year
Don't be a wuss. If you are living in your apartment for less than market price, then you are stealing from the landlord. You have no moral obligation to pay him more than he is legally allowed to charge. In fact, you have an obligation to yourself to not pay him more than he is legally allowed to charge.
In NYC (where I live) the rent increases are capped at 10% a year for the first two years of a lease and then capped at 5% after that. So if my landlord wants 50% increase I should counter with 30%. The reason 30% is because 30% + 10% (the legal maximum increase) = 40%, which is what he's asking for anyway so I might as well ask for something closer to it.
If you can find another place that costs less then you should move there instead of getting into a negotiation war with your landlord. This will force him to either lower his demands or lose his tenant and his income stream. But make sure the other place is cheaper AND has comparable quality amenities before moving there.
You don't want it to come down to threats but be prepared for it if necessary. You can say things like, "I know my rights" or "I know how much I am allowed to be charged". And threaten things like, "I will sue you" (even though you won't). These threats will put pressure on him but they also might make him angry and cause him to dig in even deeper so be ready for war if this happens.
If he needs $10,000 a year from you, offer $7,500 plus some equity in the apartment (if applicable). For instance, if he wants $10K a year from me on my apartment then I can say, "Ok we'll do it but only if we also do X." X could be something like this: "$5000/year rent plus 1/2 of any future sale of the apartment." That way when I sell later on I get half of whatever profit there is left after all expenses are paid off and any mortgage debt is cleared out (assuming there even IS any mortgage debt). This gives me much more financial incentive than just paying higher rent every year when I own the place myself later on anyway so he might go for this deal instead of just saying no and sticking with his original demands since those demands would still be met by this proposal anyway. Other ways one can offer equity in exchange for lower cash payments include things like doing an Airbnb-style rental agreement where extra money comes in each month or offering some sort of partnership where profits come in over time rather than just one lump sum payment every year (or several times a year) . There are many possibilities here but again , these should only be offered as part of a package deal since they alone won't solve anything unless both sides feel they are getting something out of it..
It's business! Sometimes business means being confrontational with people who used to seem like friends but now might seem like enemies because they want too much money from us . It's ok! We're ok! They're ok! It's business!
He'll win that one anyway. He owns the building! Again , sometimes business means being confrontational with people who used to seem like friends but
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