Imagine moving your family into a new apartment only to have your landlord raise your rent more than $150 just two months into your lease. What would you do?
A little over two months ago, a Georgia woman named Caroline Gray moved into the Robins Landing Apartment complex in Warner Robins along with her husband and three children.
Gray told local reporters that she chose to move to this community because her mother lives nearby and could help take care of her kids on occasion when she and her husband were at work.
When Gray signed her lease over two months ago, the monthly rent was listed at $1066 per month. However, just two months into her lease, she received a letter from her landlord stating that the rent would be going up to $1230 the following month.
In a typical lease contract situation, the landlord cannot simply raise the rent mid-lease. That's the whole point of having a contract. However, Gray's landlord insists that she was "forced" to raise the rent.
According to a local reporter who interviewed the property manager of Robins Landing, the manager said, "It's out of my control. The new price came from the government."
However, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the government agency that works with low-income housing apartment communities such as Robins Landing, does not require landlords to raise rents, especially not in the middle of a lease term. Instead, they simply set a maximum price that participating landlords can charge.
If I were in Gray's situation, I'd seek out the advice of a local landlord-tenant lawyer.
But, instead of putting up a fight, Gray and her family have opted to move into a camper parked in a nearby RV lot because they were unable to find an alternative apartment that they could afford in the area.
What do you think?
Is the landlord violating the tenant's rights by increasing the rent mid-lease?
Or do you think they should be allowed to do this?
Share your opinion in the comments.
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