How-To

Every renter has received an old tenant's mail. But rarely do we know what to do with it. To make things worse, tampering with someone else's mail is a felony. Whether it be opening it up or throwing it away. Here's what you can do....

Here’s another issue many of our users come across – you’re renting a house or apartment with several other people, and each person has their own room. However, the rooms are definitively not of the same quality. How do we split up the rent in a fair way? The truth is there’s no unique, obvious answer, but we try to outline a fair method in this post. We consider three separate areas of the rental unit – the bedrooms, the bathrooms, and the common areas. First, we must decide what fraction of o...

This is a story we’ve heard over and over: “This place seemed awesome, but when I moved in I found out there were all these problems!” This is a (constantly growing) list of things to check when moving into a new apartment or house as a renter, as well as tips on how to avoid them. Why is it important? * You can protect yourself from future disputes over your security deposit if you document the condition of your unit at move-in. * The move-in condition is a good signal as to whether or n...

My roommate and I were served a 6.14 rent increase notice in April last year (2019). This is the story of how we contested the increase and won without a lawyer. A Primer on Rent Increases in San Francisco The majority of residential rentals in San Francisco are rent controlled [https://padfever.com/blog/surviving-a-6-14-rent-increase/rentcontrol.io]. One of the core tenets of rent control is a managed, typically low increase in the price of rent. Once all original tenants leave a unit, the pro...