fair rent increase
I own a three family brownstone in clinton hill / bed-stuy. I have two two bedroom apartments that i have been renting to the same two tenants for over 4 years each. they currently pay $1280 and $1300 for their apartments and I have never raised their rent. I would like to raise it now…
I own a three family brownstone in clinton hill / bed-stuy. I have two two bedroom apartments that i have been renting to the same two tenants for over 4 years each. they currently pay $1280 and $1300 for their apartments and I have never raised their rent. I would like to raise it now but want to be fair and legal, does anyone what the legal percentage is that it can be raised every year? I’m thinking to raise each of their rents by $75 – $100 a month. comments? advice?
Is the rent right now close to market rate for your area? If it is and you like your tenants, I wouldn’t take the risk. They may consider moving and you could be out a month of rent interviewing replacements. You may not like your new tenants for some reason too.
There are no regulations regarding two family houses. You can raise the rent as much as you want. As a guideline, we go by how much the rent stabilization board increased rents to determine our rental increases. In 2007 it was 3.5% for a one year lease and 5.75% for a 2 year lease.
I’m in agreement with some of the other posters. If they are good tenants, and they pay on time, try to keep their increases lower. We had a good tenant who passed away, but we never raised his rent because when we went away on vacation, he would take in the mail, and keep an eye on the house. Unless you really need a rent increase to make ends meet, I would go with smaller percentages.
3:14pm – I wasn’t suggesting that the landlord subsidize their tenants lifestyles. I was just pointing out that for a lot of smaller-time landlords, keeping good tenants is more valuable than the increase in rent they would recieve. I was just pointing out a risk involved… if her tenants decide to move, she’d have to find new tenants, and create a hassle for herself. Some people wouldn’t want to have to deal with that, just to get $1200 more a year on rent rolls. By all means, ask for whatever rents you wish.
How dare you evil landlord. Contemplateing trying to make an extra buck or two on the backs of your tenants. Why should you profit from your investment while some poor schlub has to actually pay to live someplace?
You should be subsidiziing their lifestyle as much as possible – pay no attention to market rents or what you are actually entitled to.
Can I just ask why you want to raise the rents? For people who have been in the same place for that many years, a rent increase, even somewhat slight, is just what you need to edge you out into another place. So if they are good tenants and you don’t want them to move, and you don’t have legitimate reasons for raising the rent (like increased heat costs), I wouldn’t do it. But that’s just my two cents.
Great. Thanks for all the input.
It’s less than 10%. Sounds fair to me.
Unless they are subject to some sort of regulation like rent stabilization, which it doesn’t sound like they are, I believe that you can just raise it anyway you like. I assume they are renting on a month-to-month basis, i.e. without a specific lease. Check the listings at real estate offices or on craigslist to find out what comparable units are going for, then base your decision on that.
Technically if the apartments are not regulated, you can negotiate the price with the tenant.