-
41 votes
-
Jewish and Palestinian and other Muslim students at US universities prepare to file lawsuits against their schools
13 votes -
Israel-Hamas war becomes flashpoint on US college campuses
32 votes -
The US tried permanent daylight saving time in the ’70s. People hated it.
33 votes -
Mortician shows every step a body goes through at a funeral home
15 votes -
From Skinny Jeans to Doc Martens: a (short) history of America’s culture wars in fashion
7 votes -
Hasan Minaj: My response to The New Yorker article
8 votes -
Why HOAs are everywhere now
27 votes -
When foster parents don’t want to give back the baby
24 votes -
On the inadequacy and obsolescence of US laws protecting student privacy - threatening intellectual freedom to explore ideas
6 votes -
Union workers score big pay gains as labour action sweeps US
30 votes -
How the Yale unions took over New Haven
8 votes -
The secret life of Jimmy Zhong, who stole – and lost – more than $3 billion
13 votes -
I didn’t go to my dream school. Now I’m living debt-free.
22 votes -
Revenge of the nerds is a fantasy, it’s the jocks who have more successful careers
13 votes -
After writing an anti-Israel letter, Harvard students are doxxed
36 votes -
Costco clothing is cheap. But is it good value?
23 votes -
Richard Feynman's letter to his departed wife Arline
14 votes -
Prolific LA eviction law firm was caught faking cases in court
13 votes -
An investigation of the facts behind Columbia’s US News ranking
12 votes -
Amid strikes, one question: Are employers miscalculating?
27 votes -
Ibram X. Kendi’s fall is a cautionary tale — so was his rise
17 votes -
Arnold Schwarzenegger is here to pump you up (emotionally)
9 votes -
Woman denied medication for being of childbearing age
59 votes -
Atlanta’s ‘Cop City’ neighbors have no voting rights to stop it
19 votes -
Without a college degree, life in America is staggeringly shorter
21 votes -
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman introduces legislation to cancel school lunch debt
77 votes -
US homelessness increasingly includes elderly people who worked hard all of their lives - study shows half of homeless over 50
27 votes -
Remembering Charles Wilkinson, a true friend to Indian Country, the professor and leader leaves a legacy in Indigenous advocacy
7 votes -
Meeting bloat has taken over corporate America. Can it be stopped?
46 votes -
US offers nearly half-a-million Venezuelan migrants legal status and work permits following demands from strained cities
16 votes -
Confessions of a McKinsey whistleblower
24 votes -
How neighbors got NYPD to stop parking on a school sidewalk after forty years
54 votes -
Why so many migrants are coming to New York
8 votes -
Good manners, obedience and unselfishness: data reveals how UK parenting priorities compare with other nations
16 votes -
How Columbia ignored women, undermined prosecutors and protected a predator for more than twenty years
15 votes -
Hasan Minhaj’s “Emotional Truths”
20 votes -
US researchers employed by federal Housing and Urban Development agency propose study re comparative effectiveness of cash grants vs current system of vouchers for housing assistance
15 votes -
Balaji on the Tribal Lens, America’s blunder, and his plan to save San Francisco
4 votes -
Berkeley landlord association throws party to celebrate restarting evictions
49 votes -
In this Arizona city, kids with autism are more than welcome
23 votes -
Abortions rose in most US states this year, new data shows
26 votes -
The housing crisis driving America’s teacher shortage
27 votes -
Robots are pouring drinks in Vegas. As AI grows, the city's workers brace for change
19 votes -
All work and no pay: Findings from the 2023 State of the American Teacher survey
14 votes -
Where have all the girlbosses gone?
20 votes -
‘Something happened, somehow something got mixed up’: the at-home DNA test that changed two families for ever
22 votes -
Is this really what renting is like now? (Pennsylvania, USA)
Just coming back into the rental market after owning a home for a short time. I found a place that would be great. Then, I got the lease. This thing is a nightmare. Here are a few of the greatest...
Just coming back into the rental market after owning a home for a short time. I found a place that would be great. Then, I got the lease.
This thing is a nightmare. Here are a few of the greatest hits:
- The lease lists my rent and then says they can charge "additional rent" which is "all added charges, costs, and fees for the duration of this lease." So, sounds like they can just make up a number and add it to the rent and I have to pay it?
- The landlord will make a "good faith effort" to make the apartment available to me when my lease starts. Shouldn't the landlord actually do that, not just make any sort of "effort" to do it, "good faith" or otherwise?
- If the unit is damaged such that I cannot live there while repairs are being made, the landlord "may" issue me a credit for the days I can't live there. What criteria will the landlord use? If they decide not to, that means I'll be paying rent for an apartment I cannot occupy?
This is a short lease — I've seen much longer in my time renting — but even so, I could come up with a dozen more examples like this. What is going on here? I've read the law in the area, and I suspect some of the clauses in here are actually unenforceable. For example, the lease allows for automatic rent increases at lease renewal without notification while the law requires 60 days notification, and it requires me to notify 14 days after notification of a rent increase if I do not accept where the law says I have 30 days to do so.
But how did we get here? I just want to pay a specified amount every month in order to be able to live in a space someone else owns. This should be relatively simple, but it's turned into this weird whack-a-mole game where every lease is a document of all that landlord's past tenant grievances they are trying to now avoid in the future, along with any other unreasonable terms they think they can get away with. Regardless of what the law is, the lease can say anything. If I read it and decline to sign, the next person will probably just sign it and hope for the best.
For those of you who are renting, how do you deal with this sort of stuff? Are there reasonable landlords still out there? Is the right way to buy a home just to escape from unreasonable lease terms, even if you don't really want to own?
Update: Possibly important context- This property is in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
47 votes -
Coast Guard arrests a man trying to run a giant hamster wheel across the ocean
46 votes -
How dollar stores quietly consumed America
14 votes