I do the same thing and they’re always picked up on recycling weeks.

Didn’t they do it late in 2020? It’s been at least 2 years at this point.

Check with the Neighborhood Resource Center. They do all kinds of programs for kids and youth and might have a use for them!

Yeah, i saw it, and it doesn’t really address what I’m talking about.

Where did I say rent should never go up? I don’t buy for one second that some of the rent increases people are talking about here cover what you’re talking about in a way that’s not straight up exploitative.

“If you don’t like it, too bad, shut up” is basically what you’re saying here. I own, so this doesn’t actually affect me, but excuse me for having the temerity to care about other people I guess.

ETA My ideal solution is “don’t exploit people.”

Do you rent from KRS, because this has big KRS energy

Must be nice to have spite money

Yeah, comparing a payment increase on something YOU OWN because it appreciated in value to someone’s rent going up is pretty tone deaf.

I wish y’all luck!

One other thought I just had is she could contact the Virginia Lawyer Referral Service and talk to a lawyer. It’s $35 for a 30 minute consultation, and might help her figure out how to make it work.

Gotcha. I’m sorry to hear what she’s going through. I wonder if she could sell it to her partner for an amount he can get together and then basically just return the money in exchange for something else. I have no idea of legality of this but just a thought.

Can I ask why she is doing this? If it’s for Medicaid purposes, one car is exempt from the asset limit, and I think there is a 5 year lookback period on transferred assets.

Edited for clarity

How many “Schooly McSchoolFace” suggestions do you figure they’ll get

It was in a public court document—what journalist wouldn’t click a Dropbox link in there?

How is that a strawman? This IS a generations-long problem thanks to No Child Left Behind and standardized testing and underfunding of schools. Complain to the Virginia Department of Education about their standards of learning if you want to make a difference.

It’s incredibly myopic to think that RPS can just snap its fingers and put in more resources and suddenly a generation-long problem is solved. Does that mean they couldn’t do better? Certainly not. But the thing hobbling them is not renaming some schools.

It’s possible to do more than one thing at the same time. ETA George Wythe may have had a change of heart, but he still owned slaves.

I feel like this place must be in an area where no one wants to live, or else that rent would be $500-700 higher. The only way the rent is that low is if they couldn’t rent it for more.

The law says the landlord can charge any “reasonable” expenses above $50. If the application fee was truly $400, that’s unreasonable, but I suspect they had to pay $75 for application and credit check and $400 to hold the place. My last landlord did this and it’s unfortunately legal. With all those fees it’s unsurprising if it’s not clear what they’re all for.

Edited because I misunderstood your post.

What does this even mean? Do you honestly think local developers would be any better? Developers are developers regardless. See, for instance, local man Michael Hild.

Then why conflate them? People are downvoting you because the first part of the comment is unhelpful.

The fair market value thing is a useless rule. If someone will pay it, it’s market value. The $65 (or $50, per state law, not sure where $65 comes from) is application fee ONLY, and doesn’t include credit/background/other checks.

Fair and legal are two totally different things. Most of what landlords do is unfair, but what matters for tenants is whether it’s ultimately legal, since that’s what affects whether they can actually do anything about it.

I’ll preface this by saying that your landlord is nickel and diming you and that really sucks, but is common. The short answer to “can they charge us this?” is “yes.”

Raising the rent by $100 isn’t out of step with what’s common and is allowed by law, and I honestly don’t think your rent seems that high these days, especially for a house in Lakeside.

You’ll also never be able to prove what fair market value of the house is; landlords can basically charge whatever someone will rent it for. Any landlord will just decline to renew your lease if you try because there are next to no tenant protections in Virginia. Technically that could be considered retaliation for asserting your rights under the landlord tenant act, but good luck proving it.

All of this is to say that you may pay less with another landlord, but with the vacancy rate what it is, especially in your area, you should probably stay put unless you have other issues with them.

ETA certainly look around, but I don’t think you’ll do that much better.