Nickled and dimed and quartered, oh my. . .

[madamesilverspurs]

Landlords are sneaky. They advertise an apartment for $X per month, then tell you your heat and water are billed through their meters, so those utilities are added to the costs you pay them. Okay, that’s fairly standard. Then there’s the nifty add-on for the “hot” water; guess it beats heating the bath water on the stove. This is in addition to the electric bill that is in my name, and the quarters I have to put in their laundry machines.

My building was sold a few months ago. The monthly ‘rent statement’ now includes an amount to cover the costs of keeping the lights on in the hallways. So there’s that. And instead of having an on-site manager, if a problem arises you have to call long distance and leave a message, to which they may or may not respond.

These new remote managers were unhappy that my rent check wasn’t there until the third or fourth of the month. As with the previous owner I explained that my rent check is sent as soon as my Social Security check is deposited, which happens (usually) on the third day of the month. They suggested that I avoid being assessed late fees by using their online payment option. So, this month I opted to give that a try, thinking that I’d at least save the cost of a postage stamp.

Turns out their system was glitchy for two days and they didn’t get it cleared until well after 6pm today; but they called and let me know it was working, so I went online and succeeded in getting the rent paid. Finally. Unfortunately, at the very end of the transaction it advises that there is a $17 fee for utilizing the online payment. Gah.

And the rent is going up. A lot. Mine hasn’t been raised yet, they’ve been evicting people so they can go in and reno the places to rent out for a higher amount. I’ve been here several years, they know I’m not transient, so I’m guessing that I might be one of the last to find that note taped to the door.

The good news is that next month will see me once again supporting the postal service. Oh well.

[NutmegYankee]

1. Yeah, renting sucks.

I did it for several years, then bought a house after the crash which has a mortgage payment cheaper than just about any apartment in the area. Talk about a dramatic improvement in quality of life.

While I rented, the rent jumped every other year and the building just fell apart. The laundry got pricier and pricier with crappy maintenance and parking got worse and worse.

[yeoman6987]

3. I could not imagine renting

For one thing, the rent goes up almost yearly. I have been paying the exact same mortgage forever. Plus once the house is paid off you only have property taxes which go down at times and will never be as high as renting a decent apartment. I am so sorry you have to go through that. Hopefully you will be free of rent increase for years to come.

[NutmegYankee]

4. I own a house now.

[yeoman6987]

5. Extremely glad and happy to hear that!

[Art_from_Ark]

6. Sometimes renting is the only option

If you're a college student, or know you're only going to be in a place for a short time, there's no point in trying to buy a house.

[daredtowork]

9. This is very hard to do for people on a fixed income

Unless they had substantial other savings socked away for retirement - and it doesn't sound like this woman did, or she wouldn't be living month-to-month on her social security check.

I'm getting the vibe of a landlord running a "low income unit" scam of some sort, here, though.

The bad news is that low income housing is so hard to come by - at least where I'm from - that it's hard to find an alternative place if you are going to get into a fight with your current landlord that makes things uncomfortable.

Here you have to apply separately for different buildings, the wait-lists are years long (no one is moving out because no new units are being built and cheap rooms are drying up because of property speculation), you have to keep track of all the wait-lists when as a poor person you probably have a ton of other bureaucratic balls in the air at any given time, and the whole situation is just depressing.

[elleng]

2. Sorry.

Bad news. I pay rent in 2 places, and have no such difficulties, fortunately.

[NV Whino]

7. I don't know the laws in your area, but

There is generally a 10 day period within which you can pay your rent. Check it out.

[daredtowork]

8. Where is this?

I'm not sure all of this is legal - particularly because the add-ons leave you unable to anticipate how much your rent will be each month. With normal bills you could choose when during the month you could pay them. But this landlord is getting it both ways: they didn't roll the cost into your regular rent, so it looks like they are just passing on the bills while leaving themselves the luxury of when to pay those bills (what you would normally get).

I would try to talk to an attorney that deals with low income matters about this. If you have a low income unit, the landlords are getting their own incentives from the government for housing you, so they should take the timing of your Social Security check into account.

There are just too many fishy things about this. I'd have trouble believing this was all true in Texas, and I'd believe a lot about Texas!

Try calling 211 to see where to start for legal resources.