So our house decided collectively yesterday to begin a rent strike. Here's the deal; our landlord is a man named Howard Willett who owns ninety properties here in Portland, all of which he purcased in the early eighties, did a small amount of work on and began renting out. Since then, most of the houses he rents out (including ours,) have not had any repairs made to them and are quiet literally falling down. Besides having a leaking roof, black mold problems, many broken windows, a fridge that doesn't work (the freezer still works, so some of the cold air from the freezer leaks into the fridge,) only one burner on the stove now that works, and a bathtub that rocks when you stand in it and may, any day now, find itself in the basement, Mr. Willett keeps increasing our rent (because we rent on a month to month basis,) as the house deterorates more and more around us.
Don't get me wrong, I love our house. Older houses with some quirks are charming, but this house is getting to the point where I don't know why I'm not just squatting somewhere. So we met yesterday as a house and talked for a good couple of hours and decided the best thing to do would be to rent strike, and possibly get some of Willett's other properties involved as well. We know some of his other tenants are also disatisfied with their falling-down houses as well, because at various times some of us have seen fliers around town when members of other Howard Willett houses have been asking people to band together to do something about this well-known slumlord.
The other reason we've decided to rent strike is that some of us simply don't have the money to pay rent this month. We are all quiet fed up at this point in our lives with being slaves; working our asses off at jobs like social service work, fast food joints, door to door salesmen, retail, etc, just to give our hard-earned money to a multimillionaire landlord. To him, the money we work all month for is probably such an insignificant amount he probably whipes his ass with it; while we give our blood, sweat and tears to try to stay off the streets.
Enough is enough right? I for one am tired of slavery; in my short lifetime, I've worked many different backbreaking and soul breaking jobs, and I am always percariously close to losing my place to live, no matter how hard I work it seems. I've worked night shifts until I was hallicinating with lack of sleep, I've worked farm jobs where you get so exhausted you can barely stand at the end of the day. I've worked in factories, in resterants, in colleges, in shelters, as a childcare person, in a glass studio, Americorp and Peace Corp positions, in call centers...and all I've learned from all that work experience is that I'm a slave with little or no say over my own life. When the boss decides he or she no longer needs me, I get fired or laid off (I've been unsuccessful lately getting unemployment, from my most recient job loss.) When the boss wants me to work 14, 18, 30 hours in a row, do I complain or say "no." Not if you want to keep your job another week, month or year. You nod, smile and say "of course I can..."
I will no longer be a slave or a disposiable human being. I want to learn to love myself with such fierceness that I will no longer allow myself to be abused. I want to be truely free. And, the best part is, now that I'm not paying rent, I'll be able to offer the skills I've aquired in midwifery school to people for free; I just put an ad on Craigslist yesterday saying I would offer free Childbirth Ed classes and free doula services to those interested...
Love ya,
Carrot
...you will probably find yourself evicted in short order. If you really want to see the problems with your house solved, you need to look into the LEGAL ways of forcing your landlord to comply with your wishes. The first thing to do is GET A LEASE. Some people like to live month to month, because it limits your responsiblity to your landlord. But that's a sword that cuts both ways. Without a lease, your landlord doesn't have as much responsibility to you, either. The second thing you need to do is politely demand the repairs that you need in a certified letter. The statutes in most states require this step before you can legally withold your rent. If the letter doesn't get you what you want, then you can establish an escrow with your bank (assuming someone in your house has one). Then, you have to pay your rent ON TIME to the escrow. Your landlord won't be able to get the money untill he agress to make all of the necessary repairs. And, depending on how serious the repairs are, you may even be able to force the landlord to put you up in a hotel until the repairs are complete. Regardless, you cannot legally just stop paying your rent. If you do, the landlord is completely in his rights to toss you out onto the street.
TTFN,
Blackout
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Party of Fear vs. Party of Hate
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Check out Progressive PRIDE, a Gay-Straight Alliance for the ProU community.
Municipalities have VERY clear guidelines about both renter and landlord responsibilities. If you take the right steps, the city WILL be on your side. They don't like slumlords with dilapidated houses any more than the people who have to live there. But if you don't take the appropriate steps, you will be evicted and homeless again, and he'll just rent to someone else with no repurcussions. If you want to REALLY teach him a lesson, follow the steps Blackout laid out.
"Never go with a hippy to a second location."
~Jack Donaghy
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
It was hard for me to decide if this "rent strike" was really about real grievances or, really just an excuse to justify your inability or unwillingness to pay rent. Since half of the blog was a whinge fest about working at low-end jobs, I am guessing the latter.
I'm sorry, but not terribly sympathetic, that you find yourself dissastisfied with your lot as a wage slave. It has been my experience that most people who find themselves perpetually at the bottom of the economic heap are there because of choices that they personally have made. Of course some people, due to personal mental or physical limitations are only capable of doing these low-end jobs. But most people are stuck in these jobs because they chose to drop out of highschool or chose to live a counter-culture life-style or chose to do drugs and alcohol or choose to dress like dead-beats or choose not to stick with jobs long enough to work themselves up the ladder. I have seen enough of your writing to know you are not stupid. From what I know of you, you fall in the latter rather than the former group. You are largely reaping that which you have sewn.
You have been posting here for several years now. The last year has been tough but before that the economy was pretty good and there were ample opportunities to gain stable long-term employment. I have not seen you make any effort to make choices that would lead you in that direction. If you don't make hay while he sun is shining why should we be concerned that your only options are bruttish low-end jobs?
Did you try anything less drastic first, such as signing a petition, reporting him to the Better Business Bureau, or, hell- just telling him? If not, I think you and your roommates are being... well, overeager.
I'm going to have to agree that the best thing to do here is to get a contract. That way, you can keep your rent from rising and your landlord will have to make these repairs. Strikes should be reserved for a last resort. Otherwise, your entire house will end up on the streets. Find someone with legal experiences that can facilitate a contract. Maybe you could even try to get a rent to own deal so that you could be done with rent. Obviously a long-term solution, but you could all end up saving money if you live there long enough.
Like what you've read? Well, then here's more:
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tricia0711
While I was out of town, my housemates invited a new couple to move into our house and also decided we would actually be paying rent....so the rent strike already fell through.
But I'm kinda happy it did, because I have been homeless a lot the past year and was not looking forward to spending another rainy season in a tent in someone's backyard (although in some ways that was fun too.)
As for Jack's comments, I did whine a lot in that article about the jobs I've had; and so, after much thought, I've decided to put my midwifery education to good use and start my own business; taking doula clients and teaching childbirth ed classes. One of my house-mates who is good at adverting has agreed to help me with the "business" end of the business. I am actually pretty clever about ways to make ends meet, and will no doubt, find odd jobs despite the bad economy..
I think we do need to sign a lease and start communicating more with our landlord...I'm quiet certain if we demand certain improvements around the house he'd have to make them, since he does have so many properties and could potentially have his reputation hurt a lot if people in the larger community knew how slummy his properties often are...
Love ya,
Carrot