Corporate Landlord takes over duplex doubles rent refuses check/cash

[alarmguy]

You could simply open a second checking account at your bank, once a month deposit the rent into that account and then pay the landlord with that account.
This should alleviate any concerns about your information being stolen or account compromised because only the rent will be put in that account once a month. The account will be used for nothing else so you don’t have to worry.
If you do open a second checking account for this purpose always always make sure that you do not except overdraft protection.

I don’t know your age but chances are at some point you may have to get used to things electronically again. I have to be honest with you I never manually pay any bill everything is electronic and I love it.
I also use credit cards whenever possible to make payments because with a credit card you never are responsible for any fraudulent charges, that’s the credit card companies problem not yours.

Never ever use a debit card to pay a bill, only credit cards that are not linked to your checking account.

 

[Wolf359]

right now in my area you can't really throw a rock without hitting a million dollar house. but it actually less expensive to rent a house then to buy it. yeah rents have gone up, but not in proportion to the house prices.

Usually it's always cheaper to rent in the short term than to buy. Average tenancy is about 3 years. But if you're staying put for 7-10 years, it's cheaper in the long term to buy. Eventually the mortgage gets paid off in 15-30 years, but in 30 years you'd still be paying rent. Once the mortgage is paid off, taxes, insurance and maintenance is much less than rent.

 

[CarLuver]

Usually it's always cheaper to rent in the short term than to buy. Average tenancy is about 3 years. But if you're staying put for 7-10 years, it's cheaper in the long term to buy. Eventually the mortgage gets paid off in 15-30 years, but in 30 years you'd still be paying rent. Once the mortgage is paid off, taxes, insurance and maintenance is much less than rent.

oh yeah i get that , but the issue many people have is the down payment. not easy to save 200k for a down payment on a 1 mil house.

 

[Rmay635703]

Rent is basically forever and always goes up over the long term. I thought I was being nice to my tenants by not raising rents during covid

As for carefully choosing your landlord, that's a misnomer, I sell houses all the time and usually it's not something the seller planned way in The only way to control your own destiny is to buy.

Choosing a decent landlord is as important as choosing a wife, I have always vetted landlords then chose a property from them, this has always kept my rent low, issues minor and a real human I can visit in case of issues.
My rent has always been at parity or below the typical cost of property taxes so ownership doesn’t make financial sense.
Sadly there are basically no local non-corporate landlords (at least with available rentals)

Add to this home prices in this area bounce around like a ball, a $180,000 house today can be a $25,000 house tomorrow given there is a single local place that pays livable wages and only a handful out of town, if a layoff of 200 or more occurs housing values plummet 50-75% overnight as has happened 4 times in recent memory.

Several of the homes I was considering years ago have since been tore down by immenent domain to make room for various business expansions. Many of the local / mid-higher end homes were raised when the city cleared a whole block for the rehabilitation facility to expand last year.

Putting down roots in todays world is frowned upon and you need to flow with the punches whether you own or rent

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

oh yeah i get that , but the issue many people have is the down payment. not easy to save 200k for a down payment on a 1 mil house.

You don't need 20 percent down on a $1M house. You can do it with 5 percent.

 

[doitmyself]

Never ever use a debit card to pay a bill, only credit cards that are not linked to your checking account.

Why? The last time I checked, my federal credit union had the same protections for debit cards that they have for credit cards. Plus, the owner can lock/unlock either type of card whenever they wish.

"For instance, every Visa Credit and Debit Card comes with Visa’s $0 Fraud Liability. This means that if your card or card information is stolen or lost, you won’t be liable for any fraud on the card."

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Rent is basically forever and always goes up over the long term. I thought I was being nice to my tenants by not raising rents during covid, but I finally did it last year, now looking through my bills, I realized that real estate taxes really went up along with the insurance so instead of getting ahead, I just fell behind less. Now I'm going to have to raise them again. I'm way below market too which is why no one has been leaving. I'm just going to raise them so I'm a hundred or two under market.

Going up is expected. Building maintenance, taxes, etc never go down.

But mine more than doubled in a span of 3 years. $500 to $1200 a month.

 

[Wolf359]

Why? The last time I checked, my federal credit union had the same protections for debit cards that they have for credit cards. Plus, the owner can lock/unlock either type of card whenever they wish.

"For instance, every Visa Credit and Debit Card comes with Visa’s $0 Fraud Liability. This means that if your card or card information is stolen or lost, you won’t be liable for any fraud on the card."

Not really though. I doubt if they give you the money back right away if it's a debit card and you have to dispute something. On the other hand with credit, you never actually pay for anything in dispute so cash isn't tied up.

oh yeah i get that , but the issue many people have is the down payment. not easy to save 200k for a down payment on a 1 mil house.

If you can afford the payments on a 1 million dollar house, then you can afford the 200k down payment. But yeah, lots of banks will let you do 5% but the interest rates will be higher. While they seem common these days, 1 million is still the high end of things.

Choosing a decent landlord is as important as choosing a wife, I have always vetted landlords then chose a property from them, this has always kept my rent low, issues minor and a real human I can visit in case of issues.
My rent has always been at parity or below the typical cost of property taxes so ownership doesn’t make financial sense.
Sadly there are basically no local non-corporate landlords (at least with available rentals)

Add to this home prices in this area bounce around like a ball, a $180,000 house today can be a $25,000 house tomorrow given there is a single local place that pays livable wages and only a handful out of town, if a layoff of 200 or more occurs housing values plummet 50-75% overnight as has happened 4 times in recent memory.

Several of the homes I was considering years ago have since been tore down by immenent domain to make room for various business expansions. Many of the local / mid-higher end homes were raised when the city cleared a whole block for the rehabilitation facility to expand last year.

Putting down roots in todays world is frowned upon and you need to flow with the punches whether you own or rent

You've just been lucky in the past. Doesn't really work that way here. Never had a tenant visit me, always talk to them on the phone or email. I'm not sure how you're able to rent a place for less than property taxes, means the landlord was losing money renting to you. Maybe that's why they finally sold out and your doubling of rent is just the normal price and the deals you had in the past are history for now. I think my rents are easily at least 10x the property tax, the major expense is typically the mortgage then the property taxes, then water/sewer and insurance.

With working from home, it's easy to put down roots in a place. I knew many people who sold their small condo in the city and moved to Texas or Florida and got huge single families for less money and 2-3x the space.

 

[Shel_B]

Is there a question in there somewhere?

He asked, "Given Wisconsin sucks is there some way to force other payment methods?"

 

[gathermewool]

I think you need to address the root cause for being hacked so many times. Your experience is very unusual.

Your laptop(PC) may be compromised with malware or a key logger. Wipe the drive or start over with a new one.

Practice better opsec. Stay away from seedy sites, etc. Choose complicated passwords. Choose different passwords for leisure and business. Get a password manager, like LastPass, so all you have to remember is one complicated password and it generates even more complicated passwords for every site you’re a member of.

Other than that; unless someone comes in your house and sees your passwords on a sticky or you have someone who’s is dedicated to hacking just you, you should be fine.

 

[thastinger]

Yeah, cash...says right on it that it is "legal tender for all debts public & private"

 

[Wolf359]

Yeah, cash...says right on it that it is "legal tender for all debts public & private"

Doesn't quite work that way. Like stores can say that they don't take pennies. And you can't show up at an attorney's office with a pile of cash to buy a house. It's legal for debts but they don't have to accept it. Same concept as to how some places won't take $100 bills. I'm just curious what system the landlord is using. I guess there's lots of packages out there that just charge between $1-$2.50 per ACH transaction, but it's more like 3-3.5% if you use a credit card.

 

[Rmay635703]

Not really though. I doubt if they give you the money back right away if it's a debit card and you have to dispute something. On the other hand with credit, you never actually pay for anything in dispute so cash isn't tied up.


If you can afford the payments on a 1 million dollar house, then you can afford the 200k down payment. But yeah, lots of banks will let you do 5% but the interest rates will be higher. While they seem common these days, 1 million is still the high end of things.


You've just been lucky in the past. Doesn't really work that way here. Never had a tenant visit me, always talk to them on the phone or email. I'm not sure how you're able to rent a place for less than property taxes, means the landlord was losing money renting to you. Maybe that's why they finally sold out and your doubling of rent is just the normal price and the deals you had in the past are history for now. I think my rents are easily at least 10x the property tax, the major expense is typically the mortgage then the property taxes,

I said average property taxes, some rentals are much lower tax wise than a typical single family home, other multi-units much higher

Luck has nothing to do with it, common on a multi-unit in a low value area for one units rent to cover property taxes and the other unit(s) makes the profit
AKA when houses aren’t worth much the property taxes are a much higher portion of the cost of ownership, not uncommon for 50/50 split monthly mortgages/property taxes.

And it’s no longer true I have to visit the landlord, I can check reviews and address of business, used to be quite easy to find a non-corporate landlord that wasn’t terrible, that didn’t advertise, my first landlord did business from her farm, I found the rental word of mouth.

 

[alarmguy]

Why? The last time I checked, my federal credit union had the same protections for debit cards that they have for credit cards. Plus, the owner can lock/unlock either type of card whenever they wish.

"For instance, every Visa Credit and Debit Card comes with Visa’s $0 Fraud Liability. This means that if your card or card information is stolen or lost, you won’t be liable for any fraud on the card."

No, not really, look at it this way. The OP is concerned about fraud, why on earth use a card that is tied to your checking account, directly withdrawing money?

With debit cards policies can vary slightly bank to bank or credit union to credit union. But one thing for sure, if your debit card is used fraudulently you have to prove to the bank (in most all cases) that it was you who did not charg the items which could be small charges or thousands. Ultimately through your efforts you will be reimbursed as long as you reasonably prove it wasn't you.

With a credit card you do not have to prove that you didn't make a charge and you don't have to pay anything or be out any money, they would have to prove that you did make a charge. Which can't be done, unless it was in person and a perfect signature. So bottom line, charges on your charge card that are fraud are given credit immediately and if the bank/card company wants to dispute it, they would have to prove it was you, instead of you having to prove to your bank debit card that it wasn't you.

But the fact remains, why use a card attached directly to your bank account? Its almost like asking to get wiped out for no reason.

A separate credit card/no debit card insulates you from all of this. Not only that but its crazy all the true cash back credit cards there are. Giving you 2 to 5% cash back on everything you purchase AND if you have good credit paying you $200 to $300 to take their card for 3 months!
Its free money, my wife and I collected roughly $1,800 in the last year this way, its kind of fun buying stuff that you may not have normally bought other then fun and its free. *LOL* My wife makes fun of me because of my small collection of quality sunglasses totaling over $1000. paid for by cash back or my MacDesktop computer ... ya da ya da... I don't need the money, I don't need to pay bills with the cash back, so I have fun with it, buy stuff that Im kind of on the fence about, like if I need it, which I never do.

Ok, forget all this but the OP was concerned for his security, credit cards are more secure, no one has access to your money in your bank as they do with a debit card. Another thing to the OP, I wonder if he has his credit locked, its free to lock from all the credit agencies yet less than 20% of Americans lock their credit reports. With the credit report locked no one can take a loan out in your name, so if the OP is concerned, again, there is another free simple step.

 

[fisher83]

I can see why a landlord wouldn't want to mess with multiple payment methods- especially ones that can be problematic or inconvenient if they own multiple properties. I haven't rented in a long time but I do see corporate landlord accounts on a regular basis in my banking job and most of the bigger ones tend to streamline their payments as much as possible. What you've described seems pretty standard to me. I own my home but my property taxes have gone up quite a bit with the value of the home and that's not money I get until I sell the house. If I were to rent it out to someone I would have to increase rent to cover increased expenses.

 

[Rmay635703]

I think you need to address the root cause for being hacked so many times. Your experience is very unusual.

Your laptop(PC) may be compromised with malware or a key logger. Wipe the drive or start over with a new one.

Practice better opsec. Stay away from seedy sites, etc. Choose complicated passwords. Choose different passwords for leisure and business.

My identity can be found in a dozen data leaks over the years according to amip@wned
I never used my Pc for financial , (my PCs are offline only for vintage games)
I belong to forums, email and Facebook that is the extent of my seedy sites, I do not use “apps”
it’s been 15 years since I bought online to any extent, College incident was not online,
I was forced to pay title/registration online once I had to pay for all the dumb things tracfone cards for elderly parents, and had to buy a strange tire size for my strange car online once, after each purchase I would get some unapproved credit charges.
None of these payments were done with an account, just one time purchases through the site.

That email had to be disposed because I would no sooner change the password and it would be hacked, I did not access it from a Pc, up to date IOS only (change devices accounts regularly).
Accounts I never accessed that were associated with devices that no longer worked got hacked also.

Generally once they get your full identity it becomes harder to detect and stop fraud.

From what I can tell online security is a myth, you can change complex passwords often and have unique for every site and it’s like the password isn’t even there once you are targeted by the wrong folks

 

[Dave Hess]

Choosing a decent landlord is as important as choosing a wife, I have always vetted landlords then chose a property from them, this has always kept my rent low, issues minor and a real human I can visit in case of issues.
My rent has always been at parity or below the typical cost of property taxes so ownership doesn’t make financial sense.
Sadly there are basically no local non-corporate landlords (at least with available rentals)

Add to this home prices in this area bounce around like a ball, a $180,000 house today can be a $25,000 house tomorrow given there is a single local place that pays livable wages and only a handful out of town, if a layoff of 200 or more occurs housing values plummet 50-75% overnight as has happened 4 times in recent memory.

Several of the homes I was considering years ago have since been tore down by immenent domain to make room for various business expansions. Many of the local / mid-higher end homes were raised when the city cleared a whole block for the rehabilitation facility to expand last year.

Putting down roots in todays world is frowned upon and you need to flow with the punches whether you own or rent

Are you willing to relocate to another city and different rental situation ?

 

[Rmay635703]

Are you willing to relocate to another city and different rental situation ?

I rather not but have done so in the past for less.

The issue is that it’s a very long distance to get out and my location is convenient for work.

Pay to play scenario

If worse comes to worse I am currently allowed to work from home 3-4 days a week if needed, it actually makes certain aspects of my job harder but I could literally just pack up and move in with my mother if things got unbearable but a 105 mile drive albeit doable would get very old but could provide time to wait this bs out and find something ideal

I have been keeping my credit locked most of the time since my more major issues started 8 years ago

 

[Pelican]

I'd think there should be some sort of landlord-tenant tribunal thing there where they can help you out. In ontario there is, I don't think a new owner here could increase the rent by more than the regular amount 1-2% with existing tenants.
Unless you have signed something new with all their corporate mumbo jumbo in it you may be able to carry on as is. Talking to an appropriate lawyer is probably good idea at this point.
At the rental rates around here, if I was single and couldn't afford a duplex, house with an apartment, or find a reasonable room mate, I would look into stealth camper van and a 24hr gym membership or somewhere to shower.

Only for building built before 1998, if built after that year there is no limit.

 

[Rmay635703]

Only for building built before 1998, if built after that year there is no limit.

This place was built in 1868, but that clause is likely only true in Canada