People who have had a common experience of renting a flat or a house, or who know someone who has, chances are, might have encountered the “adventures” related to renting a place. People often try to avoid the negative side of such encounters by having an agency mediate their rent deals. Still, the agency doesn’t guarantee a landlord won’t try to nickel-and-dime you, as this redditor’s landlord did. More often than not, the agency is on the side of the landlord, and once they side to milk you - it's time to take control back where it belongs - into your own hands.
More info: Reddit
This man agreed with his landlord on a 1-year lease extension, but instead of the landlord's signature, he received some false accusations
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According to the landlord, the man was late with his monthly payments
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The man waited for about 2 weeks for the landlord-signed version back, but he never received it
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The man explained it wasn't his problem that the company was delaying transfer of the money to the landlord
This man signed a 1-year lease after relocating to another city. The house was a little less nice than he expected after the showing, but it was on him - caveat emptor, he says. The man remarks that they also agreed on the lease that the deposit would be used to cover the last month’s rent.
After a year, the man was asked by the landlord if he wanted to extend the contract, to which he said yes. The landlord sent him the 1-year extension for the same rent, and the man signed it and sent it back.
However, the man didn’t receive the landlord's signed document back. After inquiring with the management company, he was told that his landlord was mad at him. According to the landlord, he had been late with his monthly payments. The man was confused, as he had paid on time; however, the management company had been delaying the transfer of the payment to the landlord.
The man explained to them that per the lease, it wasn’t his problem that the company was delaying the transfer of the money. The management company requested $100 more per month on the extension, for the inconvenience, all the same.
The man immediately went out and found another apartment in the same area, but with $75 lower rent than his first rent. Before signing the new lease, he sent a letter informing the landlord and management company that he was revoking his previous signature on the new lease because of their counter-offer.
At that point, he only had around 10 days left on the existing lease - so the management company and the landlord called him freaking out because they wouldn’t be able to find a new tenant in time and would lose revenue. The man’s answer: "not my problem." He hired a moving company, cleaned the place, and left.
The management company requested $100 more per month "to make up for the inconvenience," all the same
Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual image)
The man immediately went out and found another apartment in the same area but with $75 lower rent than his first rent
The Redditor emphasized an important aspect of the story, saying that the landlord and the company tried to nickel-and-dime him. Such behavior often goes unnoticed or ignored and this is one of the ways it does its “job.” Failing to pay appropriate attention to relatively small, but constant additional payments is discussed by John Abbas in his article: “Ever feel like you are being nickel and dimed to death?” Abbas even attributes a big part of the growing gap between rich and poor to the so-called nickel-and-dime phenomenon.
He explains that once he was hit by a question: “How much of my money is going to these small, seemingly insignificant charges without me even thinking about it?” That is, the problem often has to do not with a specific action - let’s say giving to charity or tipping the personnel - but with the degree of control and awareness involved.
You may want to give to charity, but you may well want to be aware of how much and when you give. Similarly, you may want to tip someone; however, you might want to have a choice to tip or not to tip. Abbas explains that after actually checking his finances, he noticed that apart from a few big investments, the majority of his money was going to things so small, he didn’t think they would make an impact. These included hundreds of charges for charity, fees, subscriptions, memberships, etc.
He makes an interesting conclusion - wealthy people use the 9 things in his list to increase their wealth, while people in the middle class are losing most of their hard-earned money on exactly these 9 things. These things include taxes, interest, debt, inflation, tipping, charity, subscriptions, fees, and special occasions.
They called him freaking out because they wouldn't be able to find a new tenant in time; "not my problem" was the man's answer
Image credits: Karolina Grabowska (not the actual image)
Small, seemingly insignificant charges are where a lot of people end up spending most of their hard-earned money
That is not to say that one should avoid paying for the things mentioned, but to not lose sight of the bigger picture; notice how seemingly small amounts add up to significant sums, and consider changing some paying habits for one's own good.
Coming back to nickel-and-diming in the Redditor’s story, there are two aspects to be distinguished. Firstly, the landlord using the false accusation as a reason for increasing the rent was degrading, to say the least. Secondly, the fact that the Redditor was able to quickly find a new place for an even lower price than the one he was initially paying suggests that the price was raised out of greed and not because that was in any way closer to the market price. By noticing and refusing to comply with such nickel-and-diming, the Redditor stopped this behavior from his end.
Commenters on Reddit were united in supporting the man for standing his ground, some were even mentioning that leaving the place was the least this man could do. There also were a lot of people who had been in similar situations and could relate to this man.
Commenters on Reddit were united in supporting this man, a lot of them sharing that they had been in similar situations:
