Negotiating Rent Increase?

Submitted by Embarrassed_Ferret50 t3_114snkw in jerseycity

Has anyone had any luck recently negotiating down an incredibly high rent increase in their building? We just received our new lease agreement for our 3rd year, and our building is asking almost $1000 more for a 12 month lease. It’s comes down to around $500 increase if we agree to 13 months, which is strange. For clarity: no, we were not on a COVID pricing deal. Our rent was already quite high before now.

If helpful - we do live in a full service building downtown, but built in 2017 so not one of the brand new ones. We have amenities but not the whole rock climbing wall, golf simulator, etc. things. We have LOVED living here, so are really disappointed about this. Any advice anyone has is much appreciated.

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swebs33 t1_j8xuuo1 wrote

I have renewed my lease twice since moving to my current apartment and have had success lowering the proposed increase. Leverage points are: availability levels in your building, asking rents for availabilities in the building (monitor this closely and take screenshots as rates fluctuate), rates for similar age/quality buildings nearby and threaten to move (again, take screenshots). You are an established tenant so the landlord should want to keep you and not have to turn over your unit (by monitoring availability in your building you can tell if leasing is slow). Open the conversation with them saying you have enjoyed living in the building and want to renew, you were expecting an increase but not as high as the proposal (maybe propose a counteroffer but lowball it to just pad where you're okay ending up), and are hoping you can come to a reasonable agreement. Good luck!

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Direct_Ad18 t1_j8xwxp8 wrote

Do you live in a walk up? The strategy works for a individual landlord or small entity because they are dealing with this kind of stuff themselves, but it's less successful for high-rise buildings with property management companies. Turnover is expected and they have funds and workers available to do this kind of stuff so it's less of a financial hit to them. They honestly don't even care and they know how much of a hassle moving will be for the tenant. Threatening to move doesn't phase them. They have more resources than you. With an individual landlord, it's a different story.

OP can try this, but it's not likely to work, or if it does it will get reduced by a laughable amount.

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swebs33 t1_j8xxb7p wrote

I live in an amenity building owned by a large developer.

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Embarrassed_Ferret50 OP t1_j8xxuuf wrote

Thank you for this! I definitely was planning to lead with the positives about how much we like living in the building, that we’re reliable tenants.

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Direct_Ad18 t1_j8xxnrh wrote

Interesting, then your landlord is nicer than most others downtown!

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aTribeCalledLemur t1_j96atmd wrote

I live in large amenity building in Harrison and just dealt with renewal. I was able to get them to come down some on the renewal offer. Not a ton, but I'm glad I did try.

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SouthernSample t1_j91fgwv wrote

Can you be a bit more clear on your post? What is the current price and how many bedrooms is it? Mentioning $1000 increase doesn't help without this additional context.

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squee_bastard t1_j8xsp3j wrote

In my building, it’s been 1,000 renewals on 2 bedrooms and 500 on 1 bedrooms. You can try to negotiate with your leasing office but otherwise not much else you can do beyond move. This has been happening all over downtown since last January.

Legally rent could not be raised from March 2020 until January 1, 2022 due to a statewide NJ eviction moratorium. Once that expired a lot of buildings in the area have been trying to recoup their losses by raising rents. A lot of people had anywhere from 20-60% renewal rates in this sub last year. I’d do a search in the sub since some buildings were noted in the threads where people were their discussing increases.

Renewals are usually 90 days out, If you just received your renewal I’m guessing you moved in during May 2020 and probably did get a covid deal. If you signed an 18 month lease in 2020 and did not have a rental increase with your last renewal you were still protected under the moratorium in late 2021.

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bodhipooh t1_j8z94lo wrote

>Legally rent could not be raised from March 2020 until January 1, 2022 due to a statewide NJ eviction moratorium.

This is 100% wrong for OP's situation. The rental rate increase restriction was only on rent-controlled or non-owner occupied dwelling of 1 to 4 units. OP lives in a large building, which was not subject to this restriction.

https://www.jerseycitynj.gov/cityhall/HousingAndDevelopment/housingpreservation/landlordtenantrelations

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squee_bastard t1_j8zbikv wrote

I don’t know about that, I’m also in a large “luxury building” downtown and I didn’t get an increase when i renewed in 2021. I can’t imagine that the giant corporation that owns my building did that out of the kindness of their heart when they nickel and dime us on everything. Back then I was told that they could not raise my rent at the time, so last year I ended up getting a 15% increase instead to recoup costs.

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bodhipooh t1_j8zs5lt wrote

Everybody was getting deals in 2021. The rental market was in the shitter.
It’s an indisputable fact that there was no restriction on rent increases for regular market rate apartments. The rent increase restriction was for rent controller units and units in non owner occupied dwellings of 1 to 4 units. I even gave you a source. This is not an opinion, it’s a fact.

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SouthernSample t1_j91hcyo wrote

> I’m also in a large “luxury building” downtown and I didn’t get an increase when i renewed in 2021.

and you assumed that's because the govt forced them and not because the occupancy rates encouraged property owners to keep the rents low? This is not something that is subject to interpretation.

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pixel_of_moral_decay t1_j8ydo3y wrote

Don’t forget labor costs have increased dramatically. Minimum wage went up the past few years with a (ultimately good) ripple effect.

Labor is a huge part of a buildings operating costs if you look at a condo or coop. Like 30-60% depending on age of building. Newer buildings have less repair costs so 60% isn’t hard to hit.

If it’s a “Luxury” building with concierge… yea costs went up quite a bit for 24x7 staffing. Even more if you’ve got indoor plumbing that needs a plumber, electrical, someone taking care of the trash, vacuuming the hallway etc.

NYC has also seen a wave of doormen unionizing so there’s upward pressure impacting us from there too. You get a lot more compensation across the Hudson.

Then add in inflation.

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objectimpermanence t1_j91iec9 wrote

> Even more if you’ve got indoor plumbing that needs a plumber

Thankfully, my building doesn’t have indoor plumbing. /s

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Direct_Ad18 t1_j8xwhca wrote

Pretty much spot on. Once the loss is recuperated, rent increase should go back to normal, or at least they did in my building. My lease renewed (for a downtown 1 bedroom) in April 2022 with a $500 increase, or around 20%. We just got the offer for April 2023, and were pleasantly surprised to see it was only 10%, which was pretty consistent with our increases before COVID.

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flapjack212 t1_j8xydfg wrote

i've faced this situation so many times and it's really tough. the best way to deal with it is look around at the market and see if there are better options. if all other similar buildings are priced at your new rate you both have no choice and no real way to argue it. if there are options you should both negotiate and prepare to take those options.

i have no love for large landlords in general but property taxes went up an incredible amount over the past year, easily >$500/mo on a 2br

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encin t1_j8y2o02 wrote

Not if they have a tax abatement.

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TemporaryData t1_j8yscvz wrote

What’s the name of the building?

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Euphoric_Topic_7658 t1_j91lsck wrote

i can tell you that if you’re living in urby, the management doesn’t care

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Puzzlekitt t1_j927pe8 wrote

You said $1000 a year, so $83 more per month?

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Embarrassed_Ferret50 OP t1_j92x2ns wrote

$1000 per month

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Puzzlekitt t1_j93co41 wrote

I know people whose rents went up 500/mo for their 1 bedrooms. If yours is a 2bedroom or more, it seems like thats on par with what happened to my friend who also lives in an amenity building.

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READTHEBOOKJC t1_j8xxbn1 wrote

This chart shows what percentage they can raise the rent each month in a building with more than 4 units .... so if you pay $3000 per month they can bump you $2412 for the year this month....

https://cdn5-hosted.civiclive.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_6189660/File/City%20Hall/Housing%20Economic%20Development/Tenant%20Landlord%20Relations/1.12.2023%20-%20March%202023%20CPI.pdf

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Direct_Ad18 t1_j8xza8u wrote

That list is only for rent controlled buildings, which OP's building likely is not.

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bodhipooh t1_j8z8msp wrote

OP's building is DEFINITELY not rent controlled. It was built in 2017.

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