this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2024
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The idea of a corporate landlord who can just sit in some office demanding rent from you without ever showing their faces on the property really is insane.
If I think of it myself, I've never met my landlord - they communicate exclusively through their estate agent, I only ever see their name on the rent bill.
When you have no ability to confront your landlord, you have no ability to negotiate. People's living spaces shouldn't be an investment.
Do you want your landlord showing up all the time just to remind you that the place you’re living in isn’t actually yours?
No, but I want to give my landlord the opportunity (responsibility?) to see me as a person and not just an income source.
There was a great episode of This American Life where they interviewed a kid who took over managing one of his dad's properties. One of the tenants was a couple who had lost a child, and they fell behind on rent (and on life in many ways).
One of the things that stood out to me was how difficult it was for the kid to put in the work needed to accommodate this couple. He worked his ass off coming up with payment plans and helping them budget. His big takeaway was that he didn't ever want to get involved with his tenants again because it was too heartbreaking to be in a position where you're supposed to evict someone that's struggling.
Act three of this episode if you want to check it. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/323/the-super
Well put, that makes more sense. It probably is too easy to just see people as numbers.
I hadn't heard that one, I love TAL. That's amazing.
The problem with accommodating a tenant like that is the landlord has to treat all tenants exactly the same (in the US). It's unfortunate but the laws are to protect tenants who otherwise might be discriminated against.
Honestly @RadicalEagle said it better than I ever could...
I do believe a landlord should have the responsibility to communicate with their tenants personally, to negotiate any contracts personally, to hand notices personally, so that they're at the very least obligated to see their tenants as people rather than as purely as an investment.
Sure, there are some psychopaths that'll stomp all over you anyways, but for most people it's a lot harder to be an asshole when you have to confront the consequences personally.