this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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Work Reform

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Very similar to finding a new home.

Bonus challenge: Find a new home without a job.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

Oh man. I'm in my 40s, working full time in an office-based, professional role and renting is fucky even for someone who can prove a stable income. You go to look at a house, only to find 20 other people queued up waiting. You like the house, you offer to rent it, only to find that it's been rented to someone offering £200 a month more than the list price.

It's absolute shit.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I am on lifelong disability which means I get a guaranteed amount of money each month for life.

No landlords will touch me, a person with a GUARANTEED INCOME.

However, if you have a job, that you can get fired from or quit the next day, they'll accept you. Blows my fucking mind.

Btw, for anyone wondering, if I lose my job, the government will step in and give me money for my disability. If I have a job, they don't give me money. If I have a shit job where I make a couple hundred per month, they'll cover the difference. I don't mooch off the government, but my point is that I'm lucky enough to have a safety net, and landlords are so dumb they run away from it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

No landlords will touch me, a person with a GUARANTEED INCOME.

However, if you have a job, that you can get fired from or quit the next day, they’ll accept you. Blows my fucking mind.

Exactly, it's crazy. Some even go further and require you to earn 3x as much as your rent.

While I understand it's a good rule of thumb to not spend more than 1/3 on rent ... a good rule of thumb for THE RENTING PERSON, that is. Why would any landlord care if I eat oats or drive a lambo? As long as I pay my rent, what do they even care how much I have left?

And since rents have been rising more than wages, satisfying this unecessary demand becomes increasingly difficult.

Maybe it is because they are not rational homo economicuses. They find someone to rent their place anyways, so they can use their power to punish or reward people based on their societal ideals. Or simply have a say in what kind of people are allowed to live in that hood.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Years ago I rented to a section 8 tenant. She was a single mom, and my mom was a single mom, so I wanted to help her. The rent was guaranteed and I receive a check in the mail directly from the housing authority. However, the tenant never took care of the house. At times, it seems she was unemployed, but was still receiving the assistance, which was nice I guess. But I don't know what she does with her time because you'd think she will at least try to make the place that she lives in as clean / nice as she can with her time. Unfortunately, I ended up having to pay over $10k to fix up my house after she left, and the home has a lot of random damages like broken window screens, big holes in the walls, etc. Never have those issues with other tenants.

Point is, many people who receive gov't assistance never have their life together. And my experiences tell me to run away as fast as possible whenever I encounter them. As opposed to people who work hard for their money, they actually take care of the places.

You may be different, but again, once bitten, twice shy.