What would you do? Re: renting an apt

amother

Sun, May 05 2019, 8:17 pm

My sister has a basement that she rents out for periods of time. She had someone who called her who was interested in the apt (they had already came to look at it), and although the apt was available immediately, they only wanted to rent if from the following week for a couple of months. She went for it, but I told he she should have said that no, the apt is available already now and if you want it you need to start paying rent right away. Do you agree with my sister or me?

amother

Salmon

Sun, May 05 2019, 8:20 pm

Firstly this is your sisters apartment. Not yours so she can do as she pleases. I don’t think she did anything wrong by allowing the people to start paying the next week even though it’s avaialble immediately.

amother

Brunette

Sun, May 05 2019, 8:27 pm

No. What your sister did is what's accepted. It takes time to fill an apartment, that's part of having a rental. Except perhaps in some super competitive places, it would not be normal to request rent immediately when they are moving in in a week. It's not like they're asking her to hold it for a month or more.

boat

Sun, May 05 2019, 11:22 pm

Landlords choice. Take it or leave it.

Another point...most rentals in Lakewood go by the first of the month, not the week. So as a landlord I could say the tenant should pay for the entire month of May.

amother

Mon, May 06 2019, 9:37 am

amother [ Ivory ] wrote:

A week is nothing. What's the big deal? It's normal to hold an apartment for a week or so.

Op here, It is nice to do someone a favor and hold an apt for them, but the way it works (at least where I live) is if you want an apt you need to give a deposit effective as soon as they want it. Now the landlord can be nice, stop advertising and keep it for the potential tenant.

amother

Mon, May 06 2019, 9:39 am

boat wrote:

Op here, I guess it boils down to this. Landlord can choose to either agree to the tenants request or not. It usually works from the first of the month too, in some cases the month can be counted from mid month to mid month.

amother

Ruby

Mon, May 06 2019, 12:35 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

It boils down to this - the landlord can decide to do whatever the h*ll she wants to do in regards to this.

Who cares how it usually works. This works for her, and thats all that matters.

groovy1224

Mon, May 06 2019, 12:47 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I'm not trying to be rude, but isn't this obvious?

amother

Emerald

Mon, May 06 2019, 1:13 pm

Rivky wrote:

Maybe they're relying on this money as part of their income and a week "free" is a week struggle.

ITA

I could care less if my sister loses a week's rent. I care about DH's income because it is mine. Even if things aren't that tight, OP may not want to give away her money.

groovy1224

Mon, May 06 2019, 1:20 pm

amother [ Emerald ] wrote:

Sounds like sister is DH.

If that's the case, OP could have saved herself a lot of time by just saying so, as that would have eliminated all the 'why do you care' responses.

amother

Mon, May 06 2019, 1:23 pm

amother [ Emerald ] wrote:

Sounds like sister is DH.

Op here, no sister is NOT DH! And obviously as an owner of an apt you can do wtvr you want as someone mentioned here. I know that! But there's doing whatever you want and then there's doing what makes sense. Not always do you follow what makes sense, I was just wondering. That's all!

SixOfWands

Mon, May 06 2019, 1:24 pm

amother [ Emerald ] wrote:

ITA

I could care less if my sister loses a week's rent. I care about DH's income because it is mine. Even if things aren't that tight, OP may not want to give away her money.

Maybe.

But OP is still wrong.

The goal is to get the apartment rented. Whomever the lessor is, s/he did that by accepting the offer to rent a now-empty apartment that is not generating income for a couple of months. Had the lessor demanded immediate tenancy/payment, the person may well have walked away, leaving the apartment empty not only this week, but for the foreseeable future.

Unless, of course, the apartment is in an area teeming with people needing immediate mid-range term accommodations -- ie, there was a line at the door of people wanting the place starting today, and continuing for a few months. But if that were true, the apartment wouldn't be empty this week.

amother

cornflower

Mon, May 06 2019, 1:58 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Usually when people do "what they want" its because it "makes sense" to them.

Mon, May 06 2019, 2:45 pm

Market forces - if there is little demand, it benefits the landlord to hold the apartment for a potential tenant rather than risk leaving it vacant.

Personal preference - if this tenant is more desirable than others (better references, higher credit score) it benefits the landlord to do what is necessary to close the deal.

In this case, the tenant is only staying a few months. That suggests that perhaps the owner has another tenant lined up to rent in the future and making an agreement with a short-term tenant is desirable. Or maybe she has been having difficulty renting it out for some reason and she is willing to compromise. Or maybe she isn't very assertive and it is worth more to her to feel emotionally comfortable than to demand an additional one week's rent. Or maybe there is something wrong with the apartment and she knows she isn't in a strong position to negotiate.

Whatever. She has her reasons. If you see a pattern of obviously bad decision-making, then it would be time to worry. Fretting over who's right when you probably don't know the whole story and there isn't much at stake doesn't seem to serve a purpose.