New owners of apartment ruining our lives *update/thanks everyone*

WildEEP

I'd recommend moving too, and really...how much are we talking about here for moving costs?

bowen

If you've got friends, probably $100-200 for the moving van for a day.

Jebus314

Moving is definitely going to be better then paying utilities on top of your current rent, but lets not marginalize the costs of moving. Even if you have friends to help out it will still be fairly costly. If you need a moving truck that's $100-200. Depending on how many places you apply there's $50-100 or so in application fees. Chances are you aren't getting your entire security deposit back at this place or your new place, so at the end you'll take a hit on 2 security deposits instead of one by moving. This could be anywhere from an extra $50 to upwards of $400 depending on what kind of tenants you are and how big of a dick the landlords are. Also, there's a pretty decent chance you won't be able to swing the perfect move out on the 1st move in on the 1st timing, so you may end up paying double rent for a week or two to secure the place you want.

Realistically, moving is probably going to cost you at least $300-400, and could be a lot more. On top of which there are up front costs like first/last months rent plus security deposit, which are not part of the moving costs but can be difficult to come up with right now.

I'm definitely not trying to convince you not to move, cause I personally think you should. But it's worth trying to figure out exactly what it will cost.

Figgy

There's no deposit on the current place. And $200 for a moving van for a 1-bedroom? I've moved about a half dozen times and have never paid more than about $30 + mileage.

The biggest "cost" is going to be having to come up with the first and last for the new place. How common are application fees? I've never even heard of that.

bowen

Yeah my $200 estimate was $90 for the truck (with gas + mileage fees) and taking your friends out for dinner or shooting them a $20 for the day.

amateurhour

Every place I've ever rented from has application fees, but most of them were always running some sort of "special" that waived the fees because they needed people living in the units paying rent.

The app fees are fair though if they're $30 or under just to cover the cost of the background check.

Figgy

amateurhour wrote: »

Every place I've ever rented from has application fees, but most of them were always running some sort of "special" that waived the fees because they needed people living in the units paying rent.

The app fees are fair though if they're $30 or under just to cover the cost of the background check.

I see. I guess I've never had anyone do a background check on me. Even as a university student going into random houses.

That would definitely add up if you're not focused on one or two places.

bowen

Most of the background checks are done in the more shady areas. Credit checks are far more common... which can run like $50.

Darkewolfe

amateurhour wrote: »

Every place I've ever rented from has application fees, but most of them were always running some sort of "special" that waived the fees because they needed people living in the units paying rent.

The app fees are fair though if they're $30 or under just to cover the cost of the background check.

This was really true over the past several years when renters were harder to come by. Now it's evening back out and a lot of places are reinstating the fees.

amateurhour

bowen wrote: »

Most of the background checks are done in the more shady areas. Credit checks are far more common... which can run like $50.

I meant credit check by background check. I'd feel weird if a place wanted to do a background check on me to rent an apartment.

Kirbith

So we decided to go with moving to the other apartment place. While I do detest moving, I think getting away from here is just really the best option for us. Thanks so much everyone for really giving us the push to get away from here. We've got our 60 days notice put in here and have our application in at the new place, confirmed with them already that they'll have the unit size we want at the right time and all that.

Oh, and we got this lovely gem from our apartment place earlier today. Just makes me happier we made the decision to move out of here. The specials mentioned are things we got three years ago when we first moved in and were under a completely different company. Yep, us getting $50 off our first month here three years ago is totally worth losing us as future renters now. Oh and the $140 off a month mentioned was just off the ridiculous "market price" they had that no one ever paid.

Essee

If you need to rent a van/truck for moving (which you might need to), I think I can recommend Budget's van/truck rental services. For a one-day move and taking stuff a relatively short distance, I'm pretty sure their smallest truck size (which we had to use because a queen-sized mattress apparently doesn't fit very well in their vans) was significantly under even that $90 figure... I want to say it was $70, but I'd have to double-check with my mom for that since I was getting a quote for them in Canada at first. A certain amount of mileage/gas is even included in that figure (hence why I said not all that long of a distance). For a one-bedroom apartment that size of truck should fit all your stuff even if you have a fair bit of furniture (we only moved our bed, a 40" TV, a TV stand, and a couple chairs, so the truck was way under half full, maybe one-third full or something). Uhaul didn't seem to fit our needs, so we skipped them.

admanb

I would have such a hard time reading that and not sending back a note that just read, "Go fuck yourself."

The comparison to purchasing an airline ticket seems appropriate, as both are dedicated to reaming their customer's asses.

Temporal Paradox

Lol at that notice. Glad you guys decided to drop that place. Leave and never look back.

THEPAIN73

I had a very hard time not saying anything to that email.

A very hard time.

adytum

That second letter is hilarious. Sounds like you made the right decision!

ceres

So yeah, what a douche. That is just about the most patronizing thing I've read in a long time. And that's saying something.

Glad you've decided to move.

Pel

Translation: "We think we can screw you over because you want to keep living here"
What a poor poor awful shitty way to start a relationship with a new customer/tenant. It's like Wal-Mart saying, "we know you like to shop at Wal-Mart, so we're going to charge you more for everything because our marketing software says that you're likely to keep coming here anyways."

I think you're making the right decision getting out of there. The landlords seem to be horribly inexperienced or just... bad. I certainly don't fault them for altering their rate structure so they don't eat massive utility bills, but quibbling with a good tenant over a stupid policy decision is just silly, and that letter smacks of condescension and misguided managerial philosophy: the kind of ridiculous "I screw you because I can" stuff that gives libertarians a bad name.

Kipling

THEPAIN73 wrote: »

I had a very hard time not saying anything to that email.

A very hard time.

You could just share that everywhere you can rate them. Only morons would put that stuff down in writing.

Deebaser

Pel wrote: »

The landlords seem to be horribly inexperienced or just... bad. I certainly don't fault them for altering their rate structure so they don't eat massive utility bills, but quibbling with a good tenant over a stupid policy decision is just silly, and that letter smacks of condescension and misguided managerial philosophy: the kind of ridiculous "I screw you because I can" stuff that gives libertarians a bad name.

Ehhh.... it isn't really that bad. The rep is engaging on a human level and actually responding to the request. Personally I prefer that type of "no" to a copy/pasted "Your request has been reviewed and unfortunately we must decline at this time. We regret any inconvenience this causes."

It was silly for him to go into the nuts and bolts of their pricing system, but it really doesn't strike me as condescending.

Anyways, best of luck. Dont let it break your stride.

Figgy

Reminds me of my auto/home insurance company that, when I called to inquire about how to cancel my policy because I found a much better rate elsewhere, proceeded to ask me about my current mileage use and then informed me of my new, higher rate from that day forward. Then asked, "Now, what was your question?"

It baffles my mind that business owners/landlords are this clueless and would rather lose a good, paying customer/tenant than give an inch. So, instead, they're going to go through the hassle of re-renting your unit... for much less?

Well, I'm glad you found an option that works! Good luck on the move! Start collecting boxes!

bowen

Figgy wrote: »

Reminds me of my auto/home insurance company that, when I called to inquire about how to cancel my policy because I found a much better rate elsewhere, proceeded to ask me about my current mileage use and then informed me of my new, higher rate from that day forward. Then asked, "Now, what was your question?"

It baffles my mind that business owners/landlords are this clueless and would rather lose a good, paying customer/tenant than give an inch. So, instead, they're going to go through the hassle of re-renting your unit... for much less?

Well, I'm glad you found an option that works! Good luck on the move! Start collecting boxes!

I've dealt with people like this. They've got a hard-on for their software that prices everything at optimal rates they are completely unopen to discussion. These are the kinds of apartments that rent for a year and have to find new tenants after that.

My 2nd apartment's rent went from $500 to $700 ($560-$710ish) because I was "established" and they only offered a "discount" the first year, when I questioned further they said they had a program that automatically adjusted rent based on some factors like "how often did they call", "which day in the pay period did the rent come in usually", "etc". And any discussion was met with "sorry this is how we're going to do it."

Stupid shit.

Glad OP is moving on, it's for the better.