Landlords are getting petty because of renter protections

Everyone who might be needing to move or find a new apartment or rental anytime soon should be forewarned: landlords all over the country are bragging about leaving their properties completely vacant rather than risking someone claiming cdc protection. Just take a look around the r/landlord sub or the website biggerpockets or on Twitter and in private Facebook groups. They aren’t exactly being discreet. Some of the things I’ve seen:(and witnessed first hand when we were looking to move after our old lease was up): 1. Leaving units vacant and not even trying to find tenants 2. Installing security cameras inside and outside with special WiFi to catch anyone trying to squat 3. Refusing to renew anyone’s leases and giving everyone a 30 day notice when leases expire. Regardless of the tenants history. 4. Denying anyone with even a dismissed eviction filing during the pandemic. 5. Asking previous landlord if the tenant was ever late during the pandemic and if they ever used the cdc form or rental aid. If yes, they automatically reject. 6. Requiring a credit score of 800 or higher. 7. Only renting to people with certain jobs and denying anyone they think may be at risk of layoff or closure. 8. Demanding 3,6 or even 12 months rent up front; demanding a deposit of three months rent and the first and last month rent. 9. Requiring anyone they decide to rent to sign a waiver that they will not try to use any moratorium or assistance program and will pay all rent themselves, and promising to evict anyone who does need to make use of either. 10. Selling the properties to foreign investors or wall street hedge funds to be demolished and turned into condos for the super rich 11. Leaving thousands of available homes to sit empty and unavailable while millions begin to discover that there is no where to move to anymore. 12. Forcing any new tenants and anyone whose lease expires to rent on a month to month basis so they can kick them out by not renewing. And planning to non renew anyone who annoys them or has financial difficulties or tries to use assistance. 13. Going out of their way to find lease violations to evict people for. It’s disgusting and morally reprehensible. Be ok guard for any of these things when looking for a new place or at your current one. We need to contact legislators and elected officials and lobby for laws against this kind of thing.