Location: California.
We have been renting our current home for 4.5 years. The property management company recently sent us a rent increase notice and new lease terms. The new terms include a mandatory “Renters Benefit Package” that provides renters insurance, pest control services, and HVAC filters. It costs an additional $50 a month, but you can get discounts for providing your own renters insurance ($10 discount) or waiving pest control services ($9 discount). We have a current renters insurance policy. Our house has an HVAC system, so we cannot opt out of that service even though we regularly change the filter ourselves. Even if we waive as much of it as we can, they’re still charging us a few hundred dollars a year for services we don’t need. Can they force us to enroll in this program?
Comments
As long as total rent increase follows the law in a new lease they can add things of dubious value. This isn’t much different than valet trash or fetch, things designed to get more money out of tenants than just rent.