
Landlords demand rent on flooded Houston homes - lisper
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/04/hurricane-harvey-landlords-demand-rent-for-flooded-homes
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bradknowles
IMO, any landlord who demands rent on properties that are not suitable for
human habitation should be locked up and have the key thrown away.

Then all their assets should be seized under RICO.

If they won't fix it up so that humans can safely live there, then they can't
be allowed to charge rents on it.

But maybe that's just me.

~~~
VeronicaJJ123
That is ridiculous. A lot of us are middle class people who have rented our
house and we have to pay mortgage. It makes perfect sense to demand rent for
the month.

This "lock the people up I dont agree with" is called fascist attitude.

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nindalf
The other dude is crazy because no reasonable person would call for jail time
in such a case. However, I also do not support a landlord asking for rent in a
place that isn't fit for human habitation. A good contract, in my opinion,
would stipulate that the landlord loses the rent on a pro rated basis till
they fix the place up. I sympathize with their mortgage obligations, but I'm
sure that's an added incentive to get the place in shape quickly.

~~~
bonesss
> A good contract, in my opinion, would stipulate that the landlord loses the
> rent on a pro rated basis till they fix the place up.

So something like:

> ...if a rental premises is “totally unusable” due to an external disaster
> then either the landlord or tenant can terminate the lease through written
> notice. But if the property is “partially unusable” because of a disaster, a
> tenant may only get a reduction in rent determined by a county or district
> court.

...? Because that's the current situation under the Texas property code
according to the article.

Where it will get tricky is the legal distinctions of what usable means in
this context. An apartment that is fine but has no working plumbing or power?
A house that's fine except for the floors and carpets? Are the tenants storing
things there? Can the property owner exercise their ownership rights by having
parties or renting the place to the red cross or by kicking off a renovation?

These issues impact both sides of the agreement... Paying money secures rights
for tenants/leasers. For every sad story about someone who can't pay their
rent right now I bet we could put together bad legislation to make a hundred
sad stories about people who lost their rentals and property because of market
conditions favored them being kicked out during a flooding episode.

~~~
EADGBE
Renter's insurance (which can be mandated by landlord, and in some states, is
required outright), solves a majority of these posed problems.

~~~
bonesss
Renters insurance continues the payments on the property, maintaining their
legal claims in the event of disasters, which was the suggestion I was
responding to: that renters not have to pay _anything_ in situations like
this.

Floods and other natural disasters tend to sneak past most common insurance
coverage...

Regardless, the underlying demands for payment, and to what extent, as posited
by OP and detailed by the local laws, are not addressed by insurance alone.

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dan1234
Couldn't the tenants sue for breach of contract (i.e. failure to provide
habitable accommodation)?

~~~
damnfine
Yup. Did this when my heat didnt get fixed for a month one winter. Was an easy
case. Got a city inspector to come out and write it up first, but that might
be harder in the case of floods.

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moonka
Are Texas courts that landlord friendly that they are able to evict people
this fast? It's the 4th, so assuming the rent is due on the first, that seems
pretty nuts. Or are landlords illegally evicting people and I missed that part
of the article?

~~~
ianleeclark
Eviction notices can't be sent out before 30 days of being late which means,
before the hurricane, the eviction process was already in process. I can't
speak for the first story, but the second wasn't well researched.

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pasbesoin
The 2008 financial crisis was sort of the beginning of -- or acceleration of
-- a shift in home ownership from individuals to larger institutions who
bought up distressed properties and put them on the housing market.

As this unfolds, I would be interested to see analysis of how rental property
ownership breaks down in the affected area.

And to the extent it is large property and financial institutions that are
impacted, my sympathy is going to be rather low.

They took advantage of the economic crisis -- one the big banks engendered --
to profit off of financially distressed mortgage holders. Now, they find
themselves in a situation where they feel squeezed due to their own distress,
in this case caused by a natural weather event -- and a lot of poor planning
with manifold causes, of some of which they are probably complicit (holding
their immediate, short-term expenses down).

As for "smaller" landlords, they have bills to pay, too -- to such large
institutions. This is where "the government" steps in and sets rules -- or at
least guidelines -- for how to proceed, what is and isn't permissible, and
what grace periods and conditions should apply -- including terms and
compensatory actions that allow the large institutions to manage, albeit
perhaps with a manageable "haircut" of sorts. So that landlords are caught in
the middle of a financial squeeze, themselves.

But yeah, insisting a renter cough up rent for a property they cannot use as
the result of an "act of god"? Well, you have to ask yourself: Just whom
should that "act" affect?

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hanoz
Given the landlords are contracted to provide accommodation they ought in fact
to be obliged to arrange a suitable alternative at their own cost for the
duration of the notice period or until the original is made fit.

