Rent control
Does anyone know the laws on raising rent every year in this area??? I live in Alexandria apartments and the rent is going up again. That’s every year now for 5 years. This is getting ridiculous especially the quality iof the place. Is there no such thing as rent control???? I just get from the people in the office if you do like it move... nice lol I’m just asking.
Patti T As far as I know, rent can be increased anytime you renew your lease. Most apartment complexes use one year leases, so they are within their rights to increase the rent yearly.
Calico696 Certain towns have rent control, which can result in the decline of available rentals, as when the owners can no longer turn a profit, they do a condo conversion and toss you out...unless you want to buy one of the condos. Careful what you wish for. Saw it happen in Morristown, back in the early 80s. Good luck with your search.
Guilty-Remnant Property taxes go up every year.
So do maintenance contracts ( lawn, snow etc.)
Insurance costs also.
Your rent should remain the same???
Stymie Seriously 25-50 every year is insane for a 1 bedroom now over 1,000 guess they want more people on rental assistance and or welfare lol.
I can see having to do it not not every friggin year guess I’ll have to move..
do you have the option to sign a longer lease - which would hold the rent at the same amount for the duration of the lease?
4catmom Rising costs are a requirement of our inflation-mandated, debt-driven economic model.
It is what it is.
justintime It is frustrating that the rent goes up, but as stated above, rent control actually hurts tenants. It gives no incentive for the owner to make improvements/maintain while the taxes and overall costs to run the property continue to climb. If you’ve been there and have been paying on time, it’s definitely worth it to call your landlord/property mgmt company and kindly ask for a lower increase.
SiaPpolice, fire , teachers , etc....they all get health care, goes up every year....what type of work do you do ?
steven Years ago I was on a landlord/tenant relations board. Landlords of controlled apartments could raise the rent each year. A percent was set however. They could also come before the board to apply for capital improvement increases among other things. It does not necessarily hurt tenants. It prevents sky high increases but give a landlord who wants to make improvements a way to recoup costs.
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/overview-landlord-tenant-laws-new-jersey.html
“police, fire , teachers , etc....they all get health care, goes up every year....what type of work do you do ?”
steven, not everyone has a job where their income is guaranteed through the distribution of forced taxation. Private businesses compete with each other and, obviously, some win and some lose based on the voluntary choices of their customers. Two completely different income models so any comparison is circumspect.
I know I’m a broken record with this, but part of the solution to this and other similar problems lies with the design of our economic model. Inflation is part of the design and not a consequence.
The other part of the solution is having an appropriate supply to match the current demand and allowing competitive forces drive the costs down. I’ve no idea what the demand is now in our area, but if rentals are full with a backlog of requests that would likely bump the rates higher too.
I'm a property manager and Landlord. Every year taxes go up, landscaping, dumpster, snow removal, water/sewer, property insurance, fire insurance and umbrella policies are increased every year. Heating costs go up. The handyman and plumber charges more to fix things. Eventually a water heater goes, a unit needs a new stove or fridge. Also, they have those pesky NJ state inspections that now cost $300 (used to be free and went up every year, will be more next time...) There are many expenses and they ALL increase EVERY YEAR.
I own a 6-unit, the TAXES ALONE are $5,800 -- that means that EACH apartment cost me $966..JUST IN TAXES, then I have the dumpster, the landscapers/snow removal, water/sewer, electric, Landlord registration fees, inspection fees, insurance and the bi-weekly cleaning service (hallways/laundry room). Just to BREAK EVEN the rent has to be $1,155 per month. NONE of the tenants are paying that much - so it's a loss every month until we can get the rents up where they need to be to cover the cost. Yesterday I had to purchase a new stove for one apartment and had to get an electrician there to replace a broken thermostat in another. I'm not complaining, just giving some facts. A $25 - $50 increase per year seems very reasonable considering the increase for the landlord/owner is probably more than that per unit. Last year, our expenses increased (if you add them up and divide by the # of apartments) $72 per unit, but I only raised the rent $35. How long can that continue before upkeep of the building becomes impossible. That's how you end up with sub-par buildings. The money just isn't there. The big issue is the PROPERTY TAXES but Tenants don't correlate property taxes to their rent. That's what they should be fighting, but instead I see them consistently vote for the person who runs on raising taxes!! Taxes go up = rent goes up, period.
Sometimes Tenants don't understand all the costs involved...I know this doesn't make a rent increase feel any better, but I hope this helps. ☺
Laurel And taxes go up because the town is paying more also for all kinds of things. Not helpful that there are 565 municipalities doing their own thing.
OnTheEdge Your taxes on a 6 unit building is only $5800.00 ?....are you in Hackettstown ?....I thought anywhere in NJ was closer to $10,000.00.
Smile every day 4catmom “It does not necessarily hurt tenants.“
Take a real estate course and this is day 1 material. Yes it does hurt tenants in a myriad of ways. It has been said before, and I’m not going to write a long diatribe on why.
Yes my health care and everything goes up but my niece in center city philly is paying almost the same as me it’s rediculous. Of course it is what it is , but at some point I would think it would stop for a year or so.
I am going to check more into this. Thanks for the input please more advise... also the apartments around here are really getting old.
I have to read the rest of the comments, later.
under $1,000.00 has to be in the "student areas' which are policed heavily due to the crime statistics .
You get what you pay for.....I too had rental properties , tenants always believed " I pay my rent so that should cover everything and anything that comes up"
New Jersey has multiple programs that need revamping .
The other issue is ( 9 from a teacher friend ) ...all the people that rent always vote for anything the schools ask for ( they believe they are not paying for these things")
It's very clear from reading this thread, that tenants DON'T correlate taxes going up with rent going up. I firmly believe once they figure this out, they will start to (finally) question politicians who run on higher taxes. What most tenants don't yet understand (and actually most people in general...) is that if you RAISE taxes on the Owner of a building, he is going to have to RAISE the rent in conjunction with said increase.
I had a discussion (argument?) with a tenant about Murphy. She is always complaining about how expensive rent is in NJ -- and yet she had a Murphy bumper sticker on her car! I TRIED to explain to her that he is proposing a HUGE property tax increase, which will make her rent go up commensurate with the tax increase. She just could not understand what I was saying. She then got mad and said she hopes he raises all the taxes on rich Landlords "because they can afford it."
Yup......no clue.
@Laurel: can you point to where Murphy has said he is proposing a huge property tax increase?
OnTheEdge ….Can you provide the article or article ( and the source ) that shows which governor in the past two decades "actually had taxes go down ????
Here's four I found immediately. Sales tax, income tax and property tax all going up. When your a Landlord all 3 impact you - and therefore your tenants!
https://www.njtvonline.org/news/video/at-union-convention-murphy-holds-steady-on-tax-increase-proposal/
http://nj1015.com/governor-murphy-is-insisting-on-these-new-tax-increases-opinion/
https://www.atr.org/new-jersey-governor-phil-murphy-proposes-15-billion-tax-hikes
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-23/new-jersey-with-highest-property-taxes-sees-bills-rise-again
Laurel,
What you forget to mention is the SALT cap does not affect landlords, plus the standard deduction is doubled.
You should be able to get both deductions as a business expense. This is huge.
This is something that standard homeowner does not receive.
See your tax adviser.
Also many of the other things you mention are tax deductible/can be depreciated. Are you doing this as well?
Will I still be able to deduct property taxes on my rental property under the new law if I already reach $10,000 SALT cap deduction through personal home property tax?
Yes. The property tax on your rental property is deducted on Schedule E. It is directly related to the rental income and not part of the itemized persoanl deductions on schedule A. It's essentially a "business deduction"
dodgebaal Laurel
It's obvious that the people that don't know that their rent goes towards their property tax must not do their own NJ tax returns. Someone who rents gets a $50 tax credit every year for a single ($50 per couple or $25 if married filing separately). Apparently they missed that, although since I've rented for the last 24 years I never fail to make sure I pay attention to that, since it means I get a direct $50 additional back to me.
Phil D. Suck it up. Socialism is hitting home.
You need to pay more,
to put $ into section 8 (free housing for addicts/disabled/illegals/ people who just don't want to .... ).
Older Mom "illegals/ people who just don't want to .... )." ….and they are coming over the border at a "minimum" of 3,000 + a week...…………………..think that will be cheaper than a wall ????
And it finally comes around to illegal immigration. Wow, you people (HL) really only have one note.... It's a post about rent!!! Couldn't you just leave it at that??
Samiam @Laurel: all the links you provided were articles from 2018 AND before the budget was passed in July 2018. If you have anything about what property tax increase he is proposing in 2019 please post. This is what was passed in July, 2018 regarding property taxes according to nj.com ( https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/07/nj_budget_so_how_much_will_you_actually_pay_in_new.html) :
Property taxes
The budget puts another $150 million into the Homestead property tax program to double the credits homeowners received this May.
Funding under former Gov. Chris Christie meted out an average benefit of $515 for seniors and disabled homeowners and $401 for all other eligible homeowners. That's what you can expect to receive next year, too.
The state income tax deduction for local property taxes is getting a boost, too. Right now, you can only deduct the first $10,000. Under the budget deal, that bumps up to $15,000.
The administration says this will benefit half a million households.
The budget increases direct aid to schools by $402 million. This is less money the local districts have to raise from property taxpayers to balance their budgets, but there's no guarantee they won't anyway.
There's still a 2 percent cap on how much municipalities and counties can increase spending each year.
On the edge - I think you are on the wrong page. This is about the high taxes in New Jersey impacting rent prices. We are talking ALL taxes and expenses that NJ levies on Landlords and how/why the rent goes up.
Landlords do not get a Homestead rebate on their properties - that's only for owner occupied, not rentals.
You can argue all you want, but math is math. The higher the taxes, expenses, fees and inspections cost the Landlord, the higher the rent will be for the tenant. If you notice there are some new taxes (on services) that will impact landlords when they hire people to do jobs around their properties, etc. That's what we are talking about, not JUST property taxes...read my ORIGINAL POST.
https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa274.pdf
This is economics 101 google shadow market housing
This article sums it up in bullets.
https://www.nmhc.org/news/articles/the-high-cost-of-rent-control/
Skippy @Laurel : your post said, "I TRIED to explain to her that he (Murphy) is proposing a HUGE property tax increase". I was responding to that. I'm not a fan of Murphy nor I am defending him but I have not seen anything that he is proposing a huge property tax increase. I'm interested in the subject as a homeowner.
All depends on where you live, Hackettstown is expected to get an increase in school funding while Great Meadows (Independence and Libery) are expecting a $3.7million decrease in funding. A letter from Mr. Mango below.
https://www.gmrsd.com/Page/1022
kb2755 Commenting is no longer available.