Tenant couple asks for rent reduction AFTER they signed a 1yr lease in Sept

Not legally. A lease is a contract; a job loss is their responsibility to plan for. If you want to retain them as tenants, it might be worth renegotiating. If you're confident you can find a new tenant at a comparable rate, perhaps suggest that they do a lease break.

Absolutely... get ahead of the curve... if you were to keep one month deposit and re-market the unit, you may have wished you would have the devil you know... and don't negotiate against yourself... ask their thinking and what # they want.. .then offer 5% off (below) this "wish #"... this way they will 1) feel obligated to you 2) you can feel good about yourself and 3) you can sleep well knowing they'll be staying awake at nite making sure this # is paid every month for the next year.

The problem with RE is that the market adjusts so quickly yet you are theoretically "locked" into these 1 yr contracts.... it's total BS when it hits the fan and you start bringing in lawyers. Dad always said a businessman never needs a lawyer... a moron does all the time :).

Maybe reduce the rent if they resign for 2 years

you have no reason to consider their request unless the contract allows them to break the lease and not be responsible for the rent for the next 9 months. If they are not responsible for the rent and loose only a deposit then you would be foolish not to renogioate as rents seemed to have come down since sept

If the tenents won the lottery, would they offer to pay you more rent?

A contract is a contract, guess everyone wants a bailout and not accept responsibility.

are you sure the husband got laid off..maybe it's a negotiating tool.

Are you willing to call their bluff and have to go into court to recover a measly few thousand dollars AND have to go through the hassle of looking for a tenet in a down market?

Your best bet is to fake that you are sympathetic, ask them to come up with a number, then negotiate up, then plan on dumping them when the lease is up.

riznf: If I were you, I would NOT reduce the rent by any amount. A contract is, essentially, a gamble. You're gambling that rental prices won't go up and they're gambling that rental prices won't go down. In this case, you came out the winner. So enjoy it. Next time it won't necessarily be that way. If it were the other way around, and rental prices skyrocketed, how successful do you think you'd be in asking them to raise the rent in the middle of the lease?

Frankly, it's foolish to have a contract if, as a practical matter, it's only going to bind one side (which is, essentially, what you'd be doing if you renegotiate).

jgr... you stole my advice... my wife wants it back

It's an agreement, not a gamble; they are agreeing to pay you X amount for X time in exchange for use of the space, and both parties retain the flexibility to move once the agreement is completed. They are human and it's not exactly farfetched to think the husband got laid off. It sounds like a personal call to me. Do you want to keep them as tenants? If not, would you be able to easily replace them? You know your tenants best - we don't. You're the best judge of whether or not they are telling the truth about the job loss.

Is she hot?

Here is what you can do: Waive January's rent for them, but in exchange for waiving Januray's rent, keep their security deposit. This way you can help the tenants out without having to hurt your bottom line.

slope11217... a rental lease as opposed to owning allows you to effectively walk away. Believe me... rightly or wrongly the NYC courts are never gonna go after a tenant when you've got a month security and your property back in good order...

The next time... get an LC (letter of credit) from Lehman or AIG or ask for 12 months up front.

Security on a lease $5K, cost to move $2K, hassle of mailing out change of address forms $10... stiffing your "rich" overleveraged Postal Worker landlord in the greatest deflating RE bubble in mankind in the greatest city (NYC)..... PRICELESS!

jgr... the hottest doc in NYC... and bring homes the bacon and cooks it up in a pan..... :) If you know where that's from.. you're dating yourself :)

Alright. I'm giving the advice back then.

w67thstreet: your response is based on the premise that without the lease modification, the tenants will stop paying the rent. I don't think that's ever been suggested. Since one tenant still has a job, the more probable result is that they'll still pay the rent, but their finances will be tighter until the husband can get another job.

enjoli

By the way, w6thstreet, your advice that riznf ask the tenants what lease amount they were requesting and then offer them 5% BELOW THAT AMOUNT is just absurd.

slopey... it's just some tricks of the trade as they say... it's worth about the electrons its written on... :) To each their own... save the women and children first... :) Cheers!

As a landlord with both Commercial and Residential RE experience, think outside the box... don't just be a slumlord... and/or don't take every nickle at every negotiation... there's something to be said about neither side being too happy... look at Israel and Palestine.... somebody take away all their weapons and let them go at it... I'm getting tired of two ethnic group that keep getting us dragged in all the time. In HS if two bullys were talking about a fight for a year, I'd say lock them up in a classroom and say only or neither come out... but if you wanta kill yourselves... just get it over with.. Like I said the rantings of a lunatic in cell block C.. and worth only the electrons that glow in your screen. Peace Slopey... pls have the courtesy of typing at home as this blackberry chkn scratch cannot be deciphered :) Peace to all (good) men. The evil ones can go to Jersey... to alpine with you all :)

w67, your solution about locking them together assumes neither side is right. That is naive. It also assumes that a solution can be reached. Religion has no solution, it is entirely based on faith.

In any case, I think you were suggesting 5% above. And your premise that this is not a one-off transaction but rather a relationship is an important point.

I definitely suggest that the owner say, I understand these are hard times, and I may be willing to work with you if you have a reasonable suggestion, please let me know what you were thinking. If the request is reasonable, maybe there's something that can be negotiated for the benefit of the landlord to make up for it, maybe not. If the request is egregious, then you know who you are dealing with and cut their balls off. And while contract is a contract, well, people are all too quick to say lawsuit and all too slow to actually put one in effect given the expense, time, and uncertainty ... so making nice is something that should be considered strongly.

You are entitled to your rent. Just say no -- they can move out next year. Resigning with somebody who has no job for a longer term is dumb. They are higher risk, not less. Increase deposit to stay next year unless job situation remedied. Also, they cannot easily move elsewhere without an active job.

keep us updated.

Lets hope for your sake these tenants stay reasonable...if they decide you're a greedy AH and stop paying rent, oy vey what a headache! Let's just say at least 6 months in housing court, very tenant friendly judges...take west67streets advice.

I'm a personal fan of landlord tenant wars if the landlords live in the same building, so many opportunities for pranks, creating embarassment, messing with the common front door, wasting energy, dirtying the hallways, putting out apolitical signs in the window, find a mice and kill it and put it on the landlords front door mat. Never anything illegal or any costly damage that could be noted by police, and never any direct conflicts. Vacant apartment being shown by a broker, oh so many opposrunties.