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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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. [/quote]

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.[/quote]

Good luck with that!  [/quote]

+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)[/quote]
+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.[/quote]

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