Help w/ my rent situation

[Bradyams]

A father of a friend of mine from the dorms last year bought a house here at school for his son, and 4 others (5 bedroom house) to live in and pay rent. I ended up being one of the four.

In the beginning it was only going to be 4 total, and the rent was set at $380 (utilites are our responsibility), but we decided to pick someone else up, and turn an extra room in the basement into a bedroom.

The landlord's son does not pay rent. Kind of annoying, but not much I can say about it. So the original $380*3=$1140. I'm assuming this $1140 covers the house payment. So once we picked up the fifth roommate the new rent should have been $1140/4=$285. Well landlord decides an extra roommate will be more wea and tear on the house so he says $340 for rent. So he's getting $340*4=$1360 now for a grand total of $220 extra a month for wear and tear...wow. Does he really need that much?

Here's where I have a problem. This place is a dump as of now. They only painted half the house before we moved in. New carpet was put in, but for some reason not stretched in a couple of rooms. There is no lawn in the backyard, and a few other minor annoyances. If we are paying this much extra month I want to see some serious money go into this place, or my rent lowered. His son says they plan on seeding the yard in the spring, and bla bla bla, but I don't see it happening. Basically the landlord is living 150 miles away from here just collecting rent, paying the house payment, and doing nothing else. I don't think he has any motivation to actually get some stuff around here done.

So this is where I'm stuck. What do I do? The money really isn't a big problem, but I feel like I'm paying for more than what I'm getting. Should I just call him up and ask him to get [censored] done? I wouldn't mind doing some stuff myself if I got paid for it obviously.

FWIW, I haven't signed a lease agreement. It's been sitting on my desk since I moved in. Not sure why he hasn't made us sign it yet. I suppose I could just find a better situation to be in, but the 4 guys I live with are all real close friends, and since I go to college in a small town it's really tough to find a good place to live.

I know this probably sounds like a petty question, but I'm a first time renter, and not exactly sure how to go about this. I don't just want to call him up and sound like some dumb kid who just wants cheaper rent. I want to know if it sounds like I'm getting jerked around here, and what I should say to him. I really like staying here, but feel it shouldn't be as much as it is.

And to say thanks in advance:
http://s90194827.onlinehome.us/images/hello/515940/640/DW_Jessica_Alba_2_08-2005.07.23-14.25.57.jpg

[daryn]

he holds all the cards, since he OWNS THE BUILDING. so what if his kid lives there rent free. if you don't like the rent move out!

i do think you have the right to get stuff fixed around the house though.. you are paying rent, so call him up and let him know some stuff needs to be taken care of, and it's his responsibility as the landlord.

[cwsiggy]

Doesn't sound too unfair. He will regret bigtime renting a house to college kids. Everyone I know says don't be a landlord.

[phil_ivey_fan]

if you are not happy, ask him to fix the place up. if he doesn't then accept it or don't...

[Bradyams]

[ QUOTE ]
i do think you have the right to get stuff fixed around the house though.. you are paying rent, so call him up and let him know some stuff needs to be taken care of, and it's his responsibility as the landlord.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's basically my concern. Like I said I don't mind the rent, but some stuff needs to be done around here. There's still trash in the backyard from when they knocked down a shed in the backyard this summer before we moved in. Crap like that needs to get taken care of before people move in. The living room is hlaf painted and really looks like [censored], and I could go on. I don't mind moving into a house that needs work, but it doesn't seem like it's gonna get done anytime soon.

[MyTurn2Raise]

Why didn't you sign a contract?...ie a lease.

[AngusThermopyle]

Offer to do some of the clean-up on weekends in return for knocking off some of the rent.

What he did, by jacking up teh price with the extra rommate is pretty common. My parents have a couple of rental properties, and if it is a two bedroom, and one person lives there, rent is 700, if two people live there its 1000, doesnt make sense to me, but that is the way its done. I think the earlier suggestion, was the best: gather up your other roomates, and see if they want to help you fix up the place, in exchange for the landlord for lowering the rent. If you didnt sign a lease, and dont want to go through that bull, move out.

also: ditch the 5th roomate, and build a bar in the basement...duh.

[somapopper]

FWIW your rent sounds incredibly low. Without knowing where you live it becomes a little harder to judge, and your personal squarefootage, the value of commons spaces, and how much it would cost to rent a full house of equal size are all factors in the equation, but I assure you that your friends dad is not rolling in it taking 1360/month on a big property. Also, do you pay your utillities?

[TTChamp]

I don't think you are as bad off as most of the replies to this post would indicate because you haven't signed a lease. The land lord would have a difficult time getting you out of there because he has no contract that shows you agreed to pay anything (there are laws that prevent him from just throwing all your stuff out on the street and given that he is so far away he would have problems gitting things done). This guy sounds like amateur hour so I don't think he is going to sick the lawyers on you. You need to make a choice:

1. You can keep things friendly and just call the guy up and try to negotiate. He may say too bad in which case you will have to live with the situation. Up side is that you don't piss off your buddy and you don't have to deal with conflict and legal BS. Downside is that you have to live in a crappy place.

2. You could get a lawyer a stick it to him. A few of my friends had some seriuous issues with their apartments and had to go this route. Based on your story, your landlrd doesn't really have a leg to stand on. Upside to going with the lawyer is that this would get results and possibly save you on rent. Downside is that it is a major hassle, may cost you legal fees, will piss off your buddy, and may ultimately require that you move during classes.

If I were you I would go with option #1 because:
-You are in college so you won't be living in this house long.
-You are young so you probobly don't care very much about the quality of the house you are living in.
-You don't want to make things wierd with your buddy.


-The true litmus test is if the house is so bad that it is limiting the amount of ass you are bagging. You are in college, so IMO anything that distracts you from scoring with as many chicks as possible is a waste of time. Once you get out of school it is orders of magnitude more difficult to get with girls so take advantage.

-In summary, spend 20 minutes calling the guy up and trying to negotiate then hang up the phone and look for a coed to [censored].

[TheRegulat0r]

Call the guy up and say this as soon as possible in the conversation without sounding rude. Have a speculative/excited tone to your voice, not the type of thing he would associate with a grievance.

"Hey Mr. ____, I've been thinking about picking up some part time work here at school. and I know you've been wanting to get some of the work around the house finished up, do you think we could work something out?"

Chances are he'll say sure, even if he wasn't planning on putting any money into it at the moment. If he asks you what you had in mind, just say something like "Oh I don't know $8-$10/hour would be fine. I think I could finish up the painting and the carpets and really have the place looking nice if I can get a couple good weekends in."

If he says "no, I dont have any plans to work on the house right now." I would probably say "oh, ok" end the conversation and re-evaluate what route you want to take.