My Landlord kindly dropped my rent 18%

that's it? 18%? i have heard people just pack and leave if they don't get 35-50%. People are so in debt at the moment that all the credit bureau ratings have become meaningless.

landlords are out on a limb.

one guy i know was able to stay for free at 2000 square foot apartment in usquare over rent argument for 8 months. Now that's what i'm talking about...

Did you have to sign a new lease?

no,fortunately i did have to sign a new lease. the 18% deduction per month is good until i move out end of october, 2009.

i plan to stay in my building until then. i think now i'm more comfortable and the building is gorgeous.
i did not try 35-50%, i let the landlord decide and we compromised:)

sorry fortunately "I Did not have to sign a new lease". My current one was re-adjusted.

Who is your landlord?

what was the rent initially? where is your apt? how big is it? when did u rent it?
more details please

So your landlord decided to eat $3150 on your current lease in order to keep you there until October. Based on your numbers ($450 being an 18% discount) I assume your rent was $2500/month. Your landlord decided that it was better to lose one months worth of rent and keep you than lose you and risk x months rent while the apartment sat empty and finally rented at a lower rate.

Sounds like you have a smart landlord.

my building is on the UES. my rent was original $2495-1 bedroom. Full amenity building. I'm not sure i should list exact building because i'm sure others in building would do same thing. it was kind of landlord to do it for me...

what the deal with getting out of a lease if you need to?
ie my lease is up in June, and like you I want to press my landlord for a lower rent, but I may still move mid-year .... anyone know the legal particularities of getting out of a lease?
cheers

impossible.

petrfitz, this is a hoax!!!! where are you to save us from such lies?

You call it "kind"... I call it screwed.

I recently chatted with a couple moving out of our building. They wanted to stay but the landlord jacked up their rent $300 at the end of the lease. The unit is a $3200 1-bed on a nice block, UWS. I was astonished and said, "No chance the guy is getting any more for this - is he crazy?!". His response was that the landlord got the additional $300 and the new renter was moving in the next day. I am on the board and we discussed this at our last meeting and sure enough, the rent is now $3500. So for those of you hoping to negotiate down 50%, good luck - hope you get it. But don't hold your breath.

As for the person who stayed 8 months for free because he/she refused to pay rent and had a dispute with the landlord, this happens all the time. The real estate laws in NYC are HEAVILY in favor of the tenant. If you have been in a property longer than 30 days (which is why hotels usually don't offer a 30 day consecutive stay unless you have a special arrangement), you have squatter's rights, and it is very difficult to remove a tenant. The process drags on in court and can take over a year. There are sheisters that make a living doing this. But, like declaring bankruptcy, there are downsides as well - I don't know what they are, but I'm sure they're there.

For every "rent went up" anecdote, there are 20 the other way.

I have 2 friends looking, and they're being given prices on the UES 25% or more off the previous prices.

>>As for the person who stayed 8 months for free because he/she refused to pay rent and had a dispute with the landlord, this happens all the time<<

Yeah, and with that on his record no landlord's ever, I repeat EVER gonna rent to him again. He'll never be able to buy in a co-op building. Hope he enjoyed his misbegotten 8 months--he'll be paying for them for a long time. Sheer idiocy.

Except that they're now looking at making the sharing of that housing court data illegal...

I'm a reporter doing a story about the U.S. rental market. If you're in the process of negotiating with your landlord or managed to get a reduction, e-mail me at prashant_gopal@businessweek.com.

"Except that they're now looking at making the sharing of that housing court data illegal..."

What's your source? Court decisions are a matter of public record. You can find any court decision in the U.S. dating back to the 1800s on the internet in 3 seconds. All you need is a LexisNexis account.

Crain's. Housing Court currently sells records to tenant reporting agencies, and they're talking about ending that.

I don't think they'll be a lot of lexis searches by apartment owners.

rents are down generally, but it depends on many factors including location, # of beds, kind of building & amenities. also, rents aren't going to decrease if a building continues to have low vacancy rates.

This landlord does Lexis searches on tenants :)

Well, New Jersey isn't here.... so not sure what that says.