Rental agreements in DC - bigger rent increase if month-to-month

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wondering if anyone has any quick knowledge or advice before I spend loads of time trying to decipher rental laws... we are about to sign a lease, but our landlord has stated rent will increase 2.5% after one year IF we sign another one year lease. If not, the rent will increase by 6.5%. Is this legal in DC? I thought renters had the right to always go month-to-month without being penalized. I've rented for 13 years at 4 different properties in DC and have been fortunate enough to not have a landlord who raised rent every year or more than $50 each time. Any advice appreciated.

This is why it is so important to find a rent controlled apartment in DC. It's easy. They tell you up front. The rule of thumb is larger complexes built before 1975. Look there.

Obviously this person has a lot of experience renting, so they may already know this but the only time my friends had problems renting:

- Faulty appliances
- Rodents/vermin infestations
- Creaking floors/doors
- Bad insulation
- Elevators not working
- Mail theft
- Heat/AC conking out

...it was in a rent-controlled building. Maybe the trade-off is worth it to you.

I actually live in a rent control building. Check this out---

- Faulty appliances---nope
- Rodents/vermin infestations---nope
- Creaking floors/doors--nope
- Bad insulation---nope
- Elevators not working---nope
- Mail theft---nope
- Heat/AC conking out---nope

Again, do you even live here? You are clueless about everything.

I lived in one as well, for many years. Let's see, I did have an appliance or two go out through the years, they were repaired or replaced very quickly. A/C did occasionally "conk out" but was again repaired ASAP even if that meant weekends or holidays. They were nothing fancy for sure but the rent was far below market by the time I left, no bs amenities that I didn't actually use, etc etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wondering if anyone has any quick knowledge or advice before I spend loads of time trying to decipher rental laws... we are about to sign a lease, but our landlord has stated rent will increase 2.5% after one year IF we sign another one year lease. If not, the rent will increase by 6.5%. Is this legal in DC? I thought renters had the right to always go month-to-month without being penalized. I've rented for 13 years at 4 different properties in DC and have been fortunate enough to not have a landlord who raised rent every year or more than $50 each time. Any advice appreciated.

You're right. You've been fortunate that you had generous landlords.

[Anonymous]

Now that I think about it, the landlord doesn't even need to put this in the lease.

In DC, the landlord needs to give you 30 days notice before a rent increase. And they are allowed to increase the rent once in any 12 month period.

So your landlord could present you with two options thirty days before your one-year mark:
1. Sign a new one year lease for $50 more per month
2. Keep same lease and let it go month-to-moth with a rent increase of 6.5%

The decision is in your hands. But your landlord is not obligated to give you the cheaper rent hike on a month-to-month lease.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wondering if anyone has any quick knowledge or advice before I spend loads of time trying to decipher rental laws... we are about to sign a lease, but our landlord has stated rent will increase 2.5% after one year IF we sign another one year lease. If not, the rent will increase by 6.5%. Is this legal in DC? I thought renters had the right to always go month-to-month without being penalized. I've rented for 13 years at 4 different properties in DC and have been fortunate enough to not have a landlord who raised rent every year or more than $50 each time. Any advice appreciated.

I would be very wary about renting from a LL who is willing to give you a better deal to sign one-year leases when unemployment is 20%. Yes, DC is slightly insulated from massive shocks in unemployment but there are tons of people here in the service industry and the aftershocks are certainly going to ripple through the DC rental market. Personally if I was just testing the market, I'd wait and would find another apartment that isn't looking to play financial hardball upfront. There are plenty of rent controlled apartments all over the city where the most you'd pay in any pct increase would be 4%. And with CPI about to crash, which DC rent control is tethered to, rent control hikes should be lower in the next few years.

Good luck with that!

+1. you need to see things from the landlord's point of view as well. a month-to month is convenient to you because you can break the lease when you want without penalties, but for the landlord the risk is that you leave in November or December and the landlord may take months to find a new tenant, losing months in rent. so the landlord gives you the convenience of having month to month but wants a higher rent in exchange. the rental market now is soft (although for apartments, I am not sure for homes) so you may have more leverage but normally the landlord prefers to rent with a one year lease. i rented apt for ten years in DC and always had to renew with a one year lease, the month to month would have been really expensive. I admit I don't know the law but the lease you describe seems standard (and even reasonable)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wondering if anyone has any quick knowledge or advice before I spend loads of time trying to decipher rental laws... we are about to sign a lease, but our landlord has stated rent will increase 2.5% after one year IF we sign another one year lease. If not, the rent will increase by 6.5%. Is this legal in DC? I thought renters had the right to always go month-to-month without being penalized. I've rented for 13 years at 4 different properties in DC and have been fortunate enough to not have a landlord who raised rent every year or more than $50 each time. Any advice appreciated.

I would be very wary about renting from a LL who is willing to give you a better deal to sign one-year leases when unemployment is 20%. Yes, DC is slightly insulated from massive shocks in unemployment but there are tons of people here in the service industry and the aftershocks are certainly going to ripple through the DC rental market. Personally if I was just testing the market, I'd wait and would find another apartment that isn't looking to play financial hardball upfront. There are plenty of rent controlled apartments all over the city where the most you'd pay in any pct increase would be 4%. And with CPI about to crash, which DC rent control is tethered to, rent control hikes should be lower in the next few years.

Good luck with that!

+1. you need to see things from the landlord's point of view as well. a month-to month is convenient to you because you can break the lease when you want without penalties, but for the landlord the risk is that you leave in November or December and the landlord may take months to find a new tenant, losing months in rent. so the landlord gives you the convenience of having month to month but wants a higher rent in exchange. the rental market now is soft (although for apartments, I am not sure for homes) so you may have more leverage but normally the landlord prefers to rent with a one year lease. i rented apt for ten years in DC and always had to renew with a one year lease, the month to month would have been really expensive. I admit I don't know the law but the lease you describe seems standard (and even reasonable)

+1 We had tenants whose lease expired in June and I let them go month to month because they were house hunting and didn’t know when they’d have an offer accepted and when that seller would want closing. They finally found something and vacated on Halloween. I had never had this house or our other similar one vacant for more than a couple of weeks and we didn’t get another tenant moved in until late January.

[Anonymous]

Landlords can be so greedy and tenants so petty. We've managed to avoid all of that as DC landlords. We rented out two properties in the city (a condo and our English basement), and we never raised the rent on any tenant ever or made anyone sign a new lease after the first year. We also allowed tenants to break their lease early when they had a decent reason. Anyone with a decent place in a decent part of the city who takes "months" to re-rent a place is asking too much rent.