Illustration: Emma Erickson

Welcome to “Apartment Department,” Curbed’s advice column by Clio Chang. Join us every other Wednesday for questions about making peace with noisy-sex neighbors, the nuances of roommate fridge etiquette, and whatever else you might need to know about renting, buying, or crying in the New York City housing market.

Got a problem? Email clio.chang@nymag.com.

Dear Apartment Department,

My husband and I found an amazing apartment in Crown Heights with a small landlord. The place is darling: parquet floors, little backyard, beautiful built-ins. The Realtor told us the landlord was looking for a good tenant to take care of the place and said the landlord had told her specifically she wasn’t one to raise the rent. (Honestly, kind of a weird thing to say.) But my husband, a journalist, tracked down former tenants, and they are all like, “Oh, yeah, that landlord tried to raise the rent $500,” or “Yep, they raised it $700 one year” or in smaller increments. Another said $350 after the first year … (They also said the landlord doesn’t like to do repairs and a few other spooky things.) I’m thinking about asking for a two-year lease, but even then, I will be in trouble if the landlord raises the rent by a ton after two years. We are looking for some place we can stay for a while. Is there anything I can do or say to … negotiate in advance about this? Is there any way — besides finding a rent-stabilized apartment — to ensure against crazy price hikes?

Sincerely, 

Searching for the Secret

Dear Secret,

I read your question with a heavy heart. The question at the end of a market-rate lease these days, though maybe always, is never, “Will my landlord raise my rent?” but rather, “By how much?” And according to StreetEasy’s latest report, the median rent in the city has risen by 7 percent from last year, to a record $4,120. With low rental inventory and the coming summer rush of apartment seekers, it’s true that your landlord holds most — all? — of the cards in this negotiation. But certainly someone has done it before … right?

When it comes to initial negotiations, there are a few things to consider. First, if your landlord owns more than ten units, even if they’re market rate, they can’t raise rent by more than 10 percent, thanks to New York’s Good Cause eviction law. Maybe this is the case? But let’s say it’s not: Asking for a longer lease is an obvious option, but you might be more successful, at least according to broker Michael Corley, if you sweeten the deal a little bit. Sure, you might be able to get your landlord to agree to a two-year lease without much haggling. But if you want something even longer, Corley suggests offering to pay a bit more over the asking rent, which could still work out in your favor. For example, if the owner is asking for $3,000, you could offer to pay $3,050 for three years. If the landlord was planning to raise the rent by 5 percent each year, you’d save money — $3,690 total — in the end. But more importantly, it would insulate you from a surprise $700 increase over that term. “Experienced landlords welcome these arrangements, since it locks in a higher fixed cash flow on the unit,” especially if you’re a highly qualified tenant, Corley says. (“Highly qualified” here means a good job, payment history, and credit score. And probably not being a loud walker or something.)

But even a three-year lease runs out eventually. So I asked around to see if anyone had any recent success negotiating a renewal without an increase. With a small landlord, it can depend a lot on your relationship. “I had it in my lease renewal one time that they weren’t raising the lease because they love me,” one friend told me. “My roommates had to sign it.” Another tenant told me they had broken up with their partner and could no longer afford the rent on their apartment, which the landlord was planning to raise by $100, to $4,100. They were planning to move. “The whole time time, my landlord’s like, ‘I’m so sad you’re leaving. You’re the best tenant I ever had.’” They had done a lot of small things over the years for their landlord, who lived in Japan, like finding frugal options for apartment fixes and even showing the apartment to prospective tenants. The landlord had someone lined up to pay the new rent when the tenant found a potential roommate; in the end, the landlord agreed to keep renting to them at the previous rate and even lowered it by $25 because the tenant’s dog had passed away. (This tenant also told their landlord they were planning to move out after one more year, which likely helped with getting the concession.) Another tenant, Lyle, told me that their landlord wanted to increase their under-market rent by $500 after not raising it for years. They asked their landlord over for tea to negotiate in person and only managed to delay the increase — getting it down to $250 (with another $250 hike in six months) after walking around and showing them all the issues in the apartment. Another tenant paying market rate, the suggestion seemed to go, might not be as lenient as Lyle. “It was basically about us being good tenants,” Lyle said.

Being a reliable tenant helps a lot, Corley adds. “If the tenant has occupied the rental for at least two years, has had a near-perfect payment history, and wants to renew, they have a good deal of leverage.” He recently helped a tenant whose landlord wanted to renew the lease for one year with a 7 percent increase. Corley ended up countering with a two-year lease with no increase in the first year and a 5 percent increase in the second year. The landlord agreed, Corley says, because they didn’t want to lose a good renter and “definitely weren’t interested in going through a new rental process in today’s fragile economic environment.” (Corley suggests starting out a negotiation with no increase in the first year and a 2.5 percent increase in the second.)

Still, the future is always a gamble — in real estate and basically everything else. A few people said they were skating by month to month after their leases expired, since their landlords hadn’t mentioned anything yet. But many more people said they tried to negotiate their renewals to no avail: Their landlords didn’t bat an eye raising their rent by hundreds of dollars and watching their tenant walk if they declined. Brutal, perhaps, but not surprising. Asking for that 3-year lease might be your best bet, and if the landlord won’t play ball at all, you probably have a good indication of whether they would be open to negotiating when your renewal comes up.

Have a question for the Apartment Department? You can send it to clio.chang@nymag.com.

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