07-20-2009, 10:59 PM
An interesting thing happened Sunday afternoon. Someone slipped a piece of paper under my apartment door. This paper was a notice, stating that due to the economic climate, the community would stop providing the amenity of free trash collection, and charge $5 per apartment for dumpster service, to paid as an addition to the rent. Lucky for me, it coincides closely with the start of a 12 month lease renewal I had just signed 2 months ago (with no mention of any such changes in policy, written or verbal), so I will be paying in total $60 more than I negotiated for.
My feeling is that the decision is not a change in services, but a change in marketing. The dumpsters aren't going anywhere. The landlord wishes to advertise lower prices in a competitive market, and making the trash a $5 fee allows to advertise a $5 lower minimum rent. That's a type of game I am accustomed to dealing with, if I were going there to sign a lease today and the fee was in writing. Having it added to my rent after the fact does not sit well at all. The landlord will not negotiate with me on this, because the policy affects hundreds or possibly thousands of housing units (BIG landlord). You figure that on average, existing tenants will be looking at a total of $30 in increased rent, so even the ones who can speak English and also feel the same way I do, probably wouldn't be bothered to do much about it.
I won't ask for legal opinions here or get into the specific wording of my lease, although if someone wants to say this type of thing is completely normal and reasonable feel free. I'm more interested in the aspect of what you would do if you thought you were absolutely in the right on this for all of $60. I tied up the landlord's agent for about 30 minutes today and he had to call their lawyer to find which lease clause gives them the right to do this because he was not able to figure it out himself. I gave him a pretty good tongue lashing by my standards. That's a bigger stand than I usually take already. But now what?
I could let it slide, take up shadow boxing, and try not to let it affect my future business decisions too much (after all, only $60).
I could let it slide, and take grim satisfaction in telling them how stupid this move was when I end up terminating the lease in about a year.
I could make some more trips to the leasing office and try to yell the word STEALING at times when someone may be thinking of applying for an apartment, although that might be a bit petty. :lol:
Are there any consumer advocacy groups that are interested in landlord-tenant disputes?
There's always small claims court, although it would be more trouble than it's worth.
Or a class action lawsuit. :shuriken:
And I can only imagine what Doc would do in a case like this! :ph34r:
Maybe ranting about it on random internet forums will help.
My feeling is that the decision is not a change in services, but a change in marketing. The dumpsters aren't going anywhere. The landlord wishes to advertise lower prices in a competitive market, and making the trash a $5 fee allows to advertise a $5 lower minimum rent. That's a type of game I am accustomed to dealing with, if I were going there to sign a lease today and the fee was in writing. Having it added to my rent after the fact does not sit well at all. The landlord will not negotiate with me on this, because the policy affects hundreds or possibly thousands of housing units (BIG landlord). You figure that on average, existing tenants will be looking at a total of $30 in increased rent, so even the ones who can speak English and also feel the same way I do, probably wouldn't be bothered to do much about it.
I won't ask for legal opinions here or get into the specific wording of my lease, although if someone wants to say this type of thing is completely normal and reasonable feel free. I'm more interested in the aspect of what you would do if you thought you were absolutely in the right on this for all of $60. I tied up the landlord's agent for about 30 minutes today and he had to call their lawyer to find which lease clause gives them the right to do this because he was not able to figure it out himself. I gave him a pretty good tongue lashing by my standards. That's a bigger stand than I usually take already. But now what?
I could let it slide, take up shadow boxing, and try not to let it affect my future business decisions too much (after all, only $60).
I could let it slide, and take grim satisfaction in telling them how stupid this move was when I end up terminating the lease in about a year.
I could make some more trips to the leasing office and try to yell the word STEALING at times when someone may be thinking of applying for an apartment, although that might be a bit petty. :lol:
Are there any consumer advocacy groups that are interested in landlord-tenant disputes?
There's always small claims court, although it would be more trouble than it's worth.
Or a class action lawsuit. :shuriken:
And I can only imagine what Doc would do in a case like this! :ph34r:
Maybe ranting about it on random internet forums will help.