I bought a house two years ago and I intend to rent it out while I’m living with my elderly parents until they move into a nursing home or pass away, at which point I will move into it. I met with a lawyer during the purchase process and he showed a copy of his standard rental contract, which included an annual auto-renewal of the lease at a mandatory 5% increase over the previous year’s rental price. In my case, there would be absolutely no justification of any increase at all - I paid cash for the house, my insurance does not increase from year to year and neither do my property taxes, except after very infrequent reassessments - let alone a 5% increase. Even somebody who took out a mortgage to buy the house would have been paying a fixed monthly amount from year to year, so they would have had no justification for an increase in rent either.
Yes I know I’m a scumlord, but I’m charging $300 a month less than is typical in my neighborhood and I don’t do that first-and-last-months rent bullshit. A security deposit is a reasonable ask, but why should a tenant have to pay the last month’s rent up front? I’ve put a lot of work into renovating this house, and I just want a tenant who isn’t going to fuck everything up before I move into it myself.
Your story has reminded me of why I’m lollygagging so badly on renovating my house (it’s been almost two years now and really should have just taken a few months). I don’t really need the rental money and I’m terrified of having to deal with shitty tenants.