Hello all!
I would appreciate outside advice and opinions on a situation.
Background:
For several years my husband and I have rented a crummy, small apartment. The upside is that it is cheap for our area, within walking or biking distance of almost everywhere we need to go. Also, utilities are included.
We are on a month-to-month lease, in an area that is becoming more expensive. We have considered moving but figure the rent would go up at least 50% (if not 100%) for anything comparable (especially for a place that allows dogs).
The landlord does not like dogs, but he let us adopt one anyway, without charging any extra fees.
The landlord prides himself on offering affordable housing in our area. But to make it work, he puts off maintenance and just lets things generally decay around here. He often talks about about his finances being in shambles and the pressure he is under to sell rather than keep the place going.
The situation:
About a year ago the landlord approached me about our use of air conditioning. He asked if I would mind running it every other day in the summer, rather than every day, due to the expense.
I work from home for the most part, while other tenants are gone, so I use A/C more than they do. And summer here gets hot. Plus our utilities are included, with no clause in the lease about restricted A/C use. So I wasn't willing to say I just wouldn't use it for half the summer.
At the same time, I appreciated the good rent deal we were getting, so we volunteered to raise our own rent by $50/month, just to avoid being pestered about the landlord's bills. We are still paying well below market rates. When we consider all the money we have saved by living here, it's a small drop in the bucket and seemed worth it to maintain goodwill. I considered it a "thank you" to him for allowing the dog.
Now... this year he came to me AGAIN, saying the same thing. He asked us for a one-time payment of $150 to cover electricity for the summer. I was a bit annoyed to be bothered with this after we had voluntarily raised our own rent! But I talked it over with my husband. We weighed the situation and decided to pay what he asked. Again, it's very little in the grand scheme here. Also, it's not in our interest to have the landlord financially implode. Someone else could buy the place and jack up the rent and not pay for utilities at all.
I agreed to give him the sum he requested.
Even so, he now takes an accusatory, pestering tone with us. The other day he actually followed me from the house (as I had left for a short walk) to "catch" me running the A/C with no one there, so that he could complain about it to me. I thought he would be happy to have us fork over the money and would leave us alone. But we are being surveilled and nit-picked despite paying him what he wanted.
Anyway, have I set up a terrible dynamic here? In my shoes, would you have done anything differently? If he asks about this again next summer, should we pay again?
I guess I'm looking for outside perspectives on this. I've mentioned the "voluntarily raising our own rent" thing to a few people, and they thought I was crazy.