How to Negotiate to Keep Your Rent From Going Up
Unless you live in a rent-stabilized or rent-controlled apartment, you may face an annual letter from your landlord on your rental anniversary date with an unlikely anniversary present---a rent increase. Landlords are fully within their rights to raise rent in most cases, but residents have a lot of negotiation room to try and keep costs down. Although there are no guarantees, finding common ground is possible.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Show a record of having paid your rent through the past year on time every month. The Connecticut Network for Legal Aid suggests always paying rent with a check---online banking makes it even easier to create a virtual paper trail---with a note listing "Paid In Full," along with the month the payment is for. This shows the landlord you are less of a risk and guaranteed payment, compared to losing you to a new tenant who may default.
-
2
Check the vacancy level in the apartment or housing complex. If many of the units or townhomes sit empty, the landlord may be less eager to lose another paying customer. On the other hand, if there is a waiting list ready to pay the current prices and move in, you may have less negotiation room. Find out whether the facility is at capacity---a rental agent should be able to tell you this non-private information---and use it as a bargaining chip.
-
-
3
Research other apartment listings in your ZIP code. Create a side-by-side comparison of apartments of the same size and features, such as two-bedroom, one-bath apartments with washer/dryers included in facilities that features and on-site gym and pool. Include whether those apartments offer specials, such as "Free First Month" and calculate the new price. Show the landlord how raising the rent puts their facility above the cost of the others.
-
4
Review how much longer you think you'll be in your apartment. If you know you'd like to remain there for another year or longer, ask whether signing a multi-year lease could keep your costs down. A landlord who knows he'll have a filled apartment may be more likely to let the rise in costs go when he knows there won't be a vacancy.
-
5
Ask about specials, perks and deals the landlord may be offering to new residents. Although you're already living there, an offer of a free month-and-a-half of rent applied to your current rent may cancel out the cost of the rent rise over the course of a year. Other options to possibly take the sting out of the rise include a free garage space, no-cost washer/dryer rental or free Wi-Fi.
-
1
