Anyone who has rented a place to live knows that landlords can be difficult (of course many are excellent too).
A survey of more than 1,000 tenants by Legal Templates, a legal document company, shows widespread dissatisfaction with landlords among tenants.
A hefty 45% of respondents said their landlords have acted inappropriately toward them. Of those who made that accusation,
· 32% said they were secretly filmed,
· 30% said they were verbally threatened,
· 30% said they were screamed at,
· 30% said they were issued a false eviction notice,
· 28% said their landlord flirted with them,
· 28% said they were physically threatened,
· 23% said they were sexually harassed, and
· 16% said their landlord asked for rent in cryptocurrency.
Women were 12% more likely than men to have been verbally threatened, and men were 12% more likely than women to have been physically threatened.
Meanwhile, 64% of respondents said their landlord was slow to make repairs. On average, tenants said it took nearly a month for things to be fixed.
More than one-third of respondents said the repairs were done badly, and more than 25% said their landlord refused to make repairs.
Hatred for Landlords
Given all these complaints, it probably doesn’t surprise you that 43% of tenants said they hate their landlord, and 77% of these tenants plan to move out this year because of that.
All the dissatisfaction with landlords comes as rents are soaring. Rental information service Zumper’s National Rent Index hit a record high in July.
The median one-bedroom rent totaled $1,450 in the month, up 2% from June and 11.3% a year earlier. The two-bedroom median rent hit $1,750 in July, also up 2% from June and up 9.3% from July 2001.
Strong Rental Demand
“Thanks to rapidly increasing interest rates (and more rate hikes predicted), many would-be [home] buyers are opting out of the market, creating additional demand for rentals,” Zumper’s report said.
“Yet renters are holding out for deals, choosing more affordable neighborhoods, bringing in roommates and even moving back in with parents in order to save money.”
All that adds up to a “head-scratching reality for the rental industry,” the report said. “Some property owners have become accustomed to double-digit percentage hikes and will continue chasing these inflated prices for as long as they can.”
Despite rising rents, in 38 of the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, the monthly rental cost was lower than buying a starter home in June, Realtor.com reported.
