This doesn’t affect me directly (thankfully), but I’ve not been able to stop thinking about it & feeling bad for a neighbor I don’t even know.
A bit of important context bc I know other tenants have been unhappy about some of the same things… Current owner purchased the complex 13 months ago, gradually doing improvements, but a lot of the big/major things she’s mentioned have not materialized. Nothing bothersome, I’m happy with my apartment & the complex as it is & they’re pretty much all cosmetic things.
The only change I’ve been UNhappy with is that she started doing short-term leases for temporary/seasonal workers for local plants, & a lot have been disruptive… They’d stack up empty beer cases & pizza boxes alongside bagged garbage out on balconies or at the bases of the communal staircases, have groups over to loudly grill & drink (sometimes during the day, sometimes evening/night) on their balconies, catcalling, parking in others’ assigned spots, stuff like that.
When I spoke to her recently, she said she has furnished apartments for this short-term use, & there are only ten of us long-term residents (out of 40ish units). No short-term people lately, but it usually happens in batches when an employer leases a block of apartments all at once for people they’re sending.
Fast forward to current issue…
Recently, the whole-complex water heater broke down (well maintained complex, but it’s older so the water heater is one giant unit for all, same with the “boiler & chiller” that feed all the apartments for AC & heat, individual thermostats in each). IMMEDIATELY, landlady texted all residents & explained. Unfortunately, it ended up taking about a week to fix, because once the heater was replaced, it was triggering a problem with “cartridges” (?) in individual units. So water would be off completely, fixes done & water turned back on, next faulty “cartridge” in the system would mess up, repeat. Super annoying to have the water off over & over, but landlady sent updates every step of the way (sometimes multiple texts per day) & there were multiple plumbing companies visibly here working on things. Again, super inconvenient, super annoying, but it wasn’t like it just wasn’t being addressed.
Not long after, I bumped into the landlady outside & she told me that there would be “inspectors from the city” coming soon who would need to enter every unit, because another resident had filed a complaint during the issue with the water. I asked why, when the issue was addressed quickly & we were kept updated, & she said “I have no idea, but now her rent has gone up.” 😳 She even said it with a kind of smug “that’s what she gets” type of tone & expression.
Is this even legal? The landlady basically let all leases expire & put all as month to month when she bought the place. I’m sure if it went to court or something, she could just say the rent was increased for some other reason, but I feel bad for that tenant. I have a good rapport with the landlady (just convo in passing, not a friendship or anything), but now I wonder if my rent will suddenly “need “to be raised if I somehow upset her 🫣