imagine renting farmland out to a farmer, waiting for them to plant and grow crops right up till before harvest, then try to pull a switch and up the rent because “🤓☝️the land is worth more now.”

like no shit the plants on the property add value. value that came directly from the tenant in hundreds of hours of labor and materials!!??!!

good on this tenant for getting the W on the situation. im sure for countless poor others the opposite has been true :(

[–] tonarinokanasan@lemmy.sdf.org 23 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (9 children)

That's not a great argument at all. Assuming a rent agreement with say a 1-year term, there's a huge difference between trying to change rent in the middle of the contract period (obviously violates the contract unless it has specific provisions for this, which is also unlikely in most places) and asking for higher rent to renew for another term (which Occam's razor says presumably is happening here). A farmer renting farmland would never be leasing for less time than it will take their crops to grow, as that would obviously be an insane risk.

The better point here is on improving the property. Some rental contracts I've seen have terms where if the tenant spends money improving the property they get some kickback (part of it can be reduced from rent, e.g.). If you're improving property someone else owns for free and expect not to be taken advantage of, then I don't know what to tell you except that you're a sucker.

If there are takeaways from this post, it's either that 1) more jurisdictions should include stuff about this as part of their legal protections for tenants, or 2) don't be a sucker and give your landlord money for free.

Edit: if I wasn't clear, my point was that imo there should be better policies around tenants improving the homes they live in to begin with (because obviously nothing here was illegal)

[–] spujb@lemmy.cafe 20 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

dawg it was an example 🙄

i am well aware of the flaws in my example, but am using the common factors (plants and labor) to illustrate a point.

if you’re absolutely insistent on a more watertight example, say it’s renting out land for a new christmas tree farm, whose crop takes 6-10 years to reach maturity. landlord pulls the rug out at year 5, essentially robbing the tenant of their property. (edit: someone else compared it to patio furniture, which is honestly just as good a model.)

every one of my criticisms still applies. u don’t need to do this “that’s not a great argument” schtick no one benefits from that lol

[–] b000rg@midwest.social 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The patio furniture seems a more apt example since the tenant probably isn't expecting a return from their likely decorative garden plants. Whether it's more heinous to do to a commercial renter or residential is another interesting question though.

[–] spujb@lemmy.cafe 8 points 5 months ago

it’s more heinous to do it to the residential tenant, because residents lack the legal protections afforded to commercial tenants.

if it were equal we wouldn’t be having this conversation but as it stands housing is still treated as though it were a luxury commodity rather than a human necessity.

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