Imagine living in a boarding house where there’s room for multiple tenants, but you’re the only one who lives there. Would you be upset if your landlord tried to raise your rent, or would you think that’s fair since you have the house to yourself?

In this story, one person was in this situation, and she didn’t think it was fair at all, so she made her point clear.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

AITA for telling my landlord it’s not my fault she couldn’t find other tenants and raising my rent is unfair and I will leave?

I live in a boarding house.

My landlord was unable to find other tenants in large part because she advertised the vacancies too late and was unwilling to decrease the rent to make the costs more affordable, while many other landlords did lower rent to entice renters.

Additionally, as we do not live near any universities, there are no college students in the area to rent here… she typically rents to young couples with kids.

The landlord had an idea, but it’s not a very good one.

As such, I am the only person in the boarding house right now, and because of struggling with expenses and mortgage payments, she informed me that she intended to raise my rent by $100 each month to help offset the effect of not having tenants.

She told me that based on my job and earnings, I can afford to pay the increase.

I COULD afford to pay it but I refused to do so on the basis of principle.

She defended herself.

I said “That is very unfair to me. It is largely your fault you do not have tenants right now. You advertised the vacancies too late, were unwilling to negotiate rent, and if you raise my rent for this reason you will have zero tenants, which will make expenses and mortgage payments even more difficult. It would be an unwise move.”

My rent did not get raised but she has been very cold toward me since.

AITA?

Absolutely not! She did the right thing by speaking up. If the landlord raises her rent, she should move out, which would be worse for the landlord who would be left with zero tenants.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Exactly!

This person thinks she handled it very well.

She could still raise the rent.

A landlord weighs in.

Raising rent won’t entice anyone to stay.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.