Asklemmy

That's the beauty of these giant mega housing corpsb You don't. You're completely powerless to do any sort of negotiating, you bend over and take whatever offer they give you or you move. It's the American dream in reality.

You need a tenant union. There may be tenant unions active in your area which you can contact for advice, or even support. Beware of retaliation though. This is something which needs to be thought about carefully and approached strategically. In this regard, it is no different from unionizing a workplace.

If the corporation is renting 500+ units, that means they are ripping off 500+ working class families / individuals. If those 500+ tenants organize to the degree where they can collectively withhold their rent, they've got the landlords by the balls. Individual action can only go so far.

Short term? You probably have some leverage if the upkeep of the stuff is in your rent contract. Try to report them someplace? Idk.

Long term? Form a tenant union and vote for pro-tenant policies, e.g., rent control policies, owner transparency laws, limitations on the number/length of time empty properties can sit, etc. The only way to fight big power is with more-equal power.

Check if your local area has any laws around maximum rent increases per year, and how much notice is required. I once got a decent reduction because the apartment company notified me one day too late.

The local staff likely don't have any power. Generally with the larger companies, all the rent increases are automated and the only people with any power to change it are very high up at the company.

If they’re following tenancy laws to the T (which most rental corporations do as it’s in their best interests) there’s not much you can do. If the pool/hot tub is in your tenancy agreement you might be able to use that for leverage, but if it isn’t and access is just given as a “perk” then not much you can do there either. People can’t really give you advice without knowing where you live, either.

Are you a member of a tenant union, is that even a thing in your country ? When you're dealing with an individual landlord, a "strongly worded letter" or a "I've been doing my part" is enough to get somewhere. With corporation having a huge team it doesn't work, you need the legal power of a collective.

At this point, the best thing to do is to write down to politician and make-sure they implement some form of "rent control" and other tenant protection laws

Burning their office down is an option

Small claims court?

Move

Are you in a hcol area op? I know you said moving is not an option but as far as I understand it, in some places the only way you're going to be able to remove a sizeable chunk out of living expenses is being willing to commute.

Ya don’t, and when its a housing shortage, you can’t even do better by moving.

Largely depends on the city and state in which you reside. As far as I am aware, besides discrimination based on race, protection against rent increases is handled different across each state and city.

NYC for example has better tenant rights and prevention of unreasonable rent increases. On the other hand, TX has very basic tenant rights and no regulations on rent increases.

Write bad reviews on Yelp and Google Maps. Name names.

I did this in an apartment I lived in once. The local office manager asked me about it. Maintenance suddenly was doing a better job than they previously had.