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slobertgood t1_ism3u1y wrote

I think the majority of people are more concerned about maintaining housing than they are about sticking it to "the man".

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Bluehorsesho3 OP t1_ismcv4y wrote

Interesting to know that your response comes from a bias in real estate. You said so yourself landlords in NYC are completely unethical. Just how disruptive would even a 1 month city-wide rent strike be?

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slobertgood t1_ismzjwo wrote

I'd definitely be curious to know what that would entail, and while I would agree about the lack of ethics that exist, I don't believe in to be a blanket on every landlord. I know many owners who treat the tenants with the respect they deserve who don't have a large enough portfolio to be anything but devastated if people just stopped paying. Most business in the city would be in dire straits if people decided to stop paying based on a point blank assessment of the ethics of their industry.

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Bluehorsesho3 OP t1_isn0zdx wrote

It could prove how over leveraged landlords are if 1 month devastates them. That would prove to be a highlight of their own risk assets and miscalculations. If speculative prices are dictated by risk/reward then it would prove landlords are carrying much higher risk than they are revealing to their tenants and to the rental market overall.

In fact it would reveal they are dumping all the risk and speculative price conditions on to their tenants rather themselves.

It’s about time we stress test these speculative prices instead of assuming the landlords and realtors know the true value of the units they are renting. Especially if the renters are carrying most of the speculative risk.

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Bluehorsesho3 OP t1_ism3ypr wrote

Yeah but that’s because they are desperate, what would happen if the landlords were desperate for payment?

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slobertgood t1_ism42t8 wrote

The smaller ones would sell to larger landlords who could afford to take the hit and eventually you'll be standing around with an eviction notice while somebody else moves into your place.

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Bluehorsesho3 OP t1_ism4als wrote

That is a really long process. You are discounting all the fees both sides would have to eat to handle large quantities of the rent strike. You are also assuming there are enough suckers to overpay for overvalued rental prices. I’d say it would be interesting to let the evictions play out and just put pressure back on the landlord.

I mean realistically why bother caring about an overpriced rental apartment that you don’t even own. Let them handle all the risk and liability.

Rental units are “risk assets” after all.

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slobertgood t1_ism73t7 wrote

Yea and when you do eventually get evicted, what's your next course of action? Most people don't have some clutch back-up housing option that would allow them to take this kind of incredible risk. I totally understand and agree with the idea that the housing market in the city does not benefit a great deal of the people here, but this doesn't really do anything to solve the long term issue which in my opinion, is a lack of housing relative to the number of people here and their income levels.

If you don't want that apartment rest assured there are 1-3 post-grads with parents willing to assist the rent, and they aren't going to bemoan the evil landlords.

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Bluehorsesho3 OP t1_ism8ghd wrote

Next course of action is you have plenty of money now for all those months you saved money by not paying rent in the first place. Have a plan B setup with the money you save.

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nowyourdoingit t1_ism6j9m wrote

It's happened before with some success https://jewishcurrents.org/rent-strike

Striking and protesting are effective. History shows time and time again that disrupting the money supply is the only thing that is.

Most likely result now is if it got large enough the national guard would be activated and they'd start high profile jailings.

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Bluehorsesho3 OP t1_ism6xyb wrote

No one said nonviolent protest is easy. You’d show the hand of the property owners too because violence would likely end up being used against people who participated in the protest.

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nowyourdoingit t1_ism7ad2 wrote

It won't work in NYC because the conflation of the hyper wealthy and powerful and the deep pool of sycophantic wannabees who are trying to climb that pyramid. When it worked in the past it was because of groups which shared a common cultural heritage...only common heritage for most New Yorkers these days is the grind and pizza rats.

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Bluehorsesho3 OP t1_ism7zon wrote

But how many wannabes are actually in the pool? That’s the real question. If there are fewer than the landlords are marketing to NYers then this would be an effective means of protest.

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thetwelth2018 t1_ism8c6c wrote

Debtors prisons are illegal in the US. The likely outcome would be the government declaring a national emergency and allowing people to stay in place without paying rents. But private landlords would not be incentivized to maintain a basic level of service and could possibly try to destroy their buildings to collect on property insurance a la the Bronx is burning a few decades ago. An alternative could be public confiscation of these properties but then you have NYC as your landlord which is you ask any NYCHA resident they will tell you NYC is a slumlord. Best case would be for the landlords to coop their buildings but by that point the city would be destroyed. Best to pay your rent or move back to Iowa.

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nowyourdoingit t1_ism9847 wrote

They wouldn't arrest people for failure to pay rent. They would arrest people for civil disobedience and resisting arrest and a variety of other things. The powers at be in the US have been working since before the US was a country to put measures in place to limit the potential efficacy of rebellions and strikes. George Washington and the Whiskey Rebellion...

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thetwelth2018 t1_ismb86d wrote

The 2020 protests confirm that the governments response would not be to jail large protests. Even the violent rioters were often not arrested or prosecuted. A nonviolent rent strike would receive a very favorable response from the government.

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