I mean, this is how businesses work in general. If you don't buy their products/services, then they wouldn't be able to continue providing them.
I understand that we're trying to draw attention to exploitative landlords, but if anyone can afford to keep their property regardless of whether or not you pay rent, it's the exploitative ones.
The problem is that landlords don't create value, they seek to endlessly profit off of one time labor. Rent-seeking creates no real Value of any substance.
That's the naivete of the Internet talking. Of course landlords create value; they do so in exactly the same way lenders create value: they absorb risk by amortizing upfront costs and charge a premium to do so.
If you didn't agree that it's an ethical way to participate in the economy, say that. Don't try to pass off a moral judgment as an objective truth.
There's no Value created by risk, that's an ad-hoc justification for profiting endlessly off of labor performed one time long ago.
They do create value. They provide maintenance free housing as well as short term housing (short term as in 1-3 years.) Not everyone wants to stay in the same location for 5+ years. If you move around alot It you want to rent is usually the better option.
Now sure you could argue they are over charging for that service but that doesn't mean they aren't providing value.
The only reason why we are having issues is because there is a housing shortage that is raising the price and large companies have taken advantage of this by buying up all the houses at the crazy price and renting them out at crazy rent prices eating up the market for actual people to want to buy a house.
They do create value. They provide maintenance free housing as well as short term housing (short term as in 1-3 years.) Not everyone wants to stay in the same location for 5+ years. If you move around alot It you want to rent is usually the better option.
The ability to rent is useful, but the idea that endlessly profiting off of the same property and doing minor maintenance is creating Value is silly. There's no Value being created through simply owning something. Maintenance creates Value, yes, but that does not make up anywhere close to the profit of landlording.
No. It's not large companies. It's a sickness inherent in the system and exactly what this is taking about. The only service being provided is leveraging their own credit to get a mortgage from the bank and then paying that mortgage and taxes with rent. They do that because it will decrease supply and increase value. And that's a parasitic practice done not just by large companies by any means. In my city they even subcontract for maintenance and also pay for that out of the rent. If we're doing this shit, why exactly aren't we just letting the renters own their equity for paying the goddamn mortgage. It's a disgusting system.
They provide maintenance free housing...
Keep in mind this isn't always the case. Landlords where I used to live are increasingly requiring tenants to pay for some maintenance costs. A past landlord had us pay for anything $300 or less.
Robbing tenants of potential equity is not a service.
CAPITAL-ism is aimed and designed to benefit those with the capital.
I hate this about our system. To combat this i am sharing equity with the guy that rents a room. I'm tracking how much his rent payments go to paying off the mortgage (which I can make myself, it's just a larger house with rooms to spare) he will get a check based off the percent he paid off on sale, or a percentage of revenue if we end up keeping and paying it off years later. Finance people think I'm crazy giving up that much equity. I just hated tossing rent money to the void, so I figured now that I'm in a position to change my little corner of the world, I will.
The finance people (and sadly, many many others) think making the number bigger is a more important and worthwhile goal than making your corner of the world a better place. So good on you for being a compassionate human!
It doesn't matter what individuals think in the system, the system moves regardless because if they don't take advantage of it, others will and will supercede them. In this manner, Capital functions almost like a god that is actually worshipped.
Individuals being compassionate within a horrible system will not influence the system overall, though it doesn't mean compassion isn't worth it.
ALAB.
No they aren't all bad. I've had good ones. They were there for us at the drop of a hat to fix things, they didn't over charge. We paid rent on time and they gave us good references for the next places we would move to. My friend currently rents a 1 bedroom apartment for 800$ in a six unit building. They asked the landlord why they don't charge more when they could easily ask 1500$ plus. He said he knows he could but he also is aware that's not in the budget for a lot of Canadians right now. So he only asks for what he needs to cover his own costs. Would you say that landlord is bad? My friend can't afford the upkeep of unexpected home maintenance and utilities on her current budget.
Elmo: Let me introduce you to the revolutionary who taught me all this.
*knocks on trash can
I'm not sure if this is an Oscar reference or a Zizek reference and either way I'm here for it.
Great theory until you get removed from your home trying to make a point because the family of 3 with nowhere else to go doesn't have the luxury of caring about things like this thanks to the broke ass system we all reside in.
Great theory until you get removed from your home trying to make a point
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_strike
When you get the whole building involve, it can be surprisingly effective.
the family of 3 with nowhere else to go doesn’t have the luxury of caring about things like this
You don't think a family of 3 cares when their rents double over five years while their wages barely budge?
Stop paying rent to see who loses their home. It's an ugly system.
Who forecloses on the tenant? The landlord
Who forecloses on the landlord? The bank
Who actually performs the eviction? The sheriff's office
Who therefore truly controls the property?
A lot of people on the comments seem to have had landlords who “fixed things”
I used to rent, and then decided to buy my own home right before it became impossible to do so for most people. I wouldn't be able to afford to buy a house nowadays. I lucked out.
Renting was better in many ways because Jesus Christ there's so much shit I have to pay to fix. 5000$ furnace in the middle of -25 weather. AC 3500$ died in summer. roof leak repair 1500$.. , rotting deck 5000$ DIY. Foundation repair, crawlspace encapsulation, toilet replacement+flooring (35 year old terlet was leaking for years and had rotted the boards underneath). Fridge broke and had to buy our own to replace it, same thing happened to the stove. Back when I rented I would call the landlord and they'd replace it at no cost to me. It's a good thing we have credit to put this shit on, because without it we would be fucked. We used a mini fridge for 6 months because we had to save for a full size fridge when ours broke.
House maintenance is a killer. I can't just call my landlord up and tell them it needs to be done. Or if I had a shitty landlord who doesn't want to fix shit, like I've had in the past, I can't NOT care, move out eventually and it's not my issue once I'm gone. It'll come back to bite you when it's a house you have invested in and own. Owning houses is expensive. Renting has a lot of perks and one of them is you aren't required to keep up the house. All that falls on the person you are renting from.
Now the frigging cost that some landlords are charging is criminal and a whole other story.
