An organizer speaks about collective power in the world of real estate capital.

  • theparadox@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    It can cost landlords a lot of money. You can evict everyone but then you need to actually go through the process with them, one by one. The union can also collectively call attention from the municipality, file official complaints, etc.

    If you rent strike and the landlord evicts eveyone, then they need to ready all the units all at once with none of the units generating any income. Assuming they have maintenance staff, they don’t have enough to handle that kind of volume. They’ll need to contract it out or deal with no income as units get ready one by one. The only downside (upside for them) is that they might be able to raise the rents on new tenants if demand is high enough.

    • Wilco@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      An eviction just costs court fees in my state, and the landlord will automatically get the fee and any legal fee back.

      People put deposits down exactly for this reason. The properties are insured. There is no way a renters union would work.

      • theparadox@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Sorry everyone, forget everything I said. This one person says that the first reason in my list of reasons of why it can be effective to form a tenants union isn’t a big deal in their state. I guess that miraculously invalidates all of my other points that aren’t related the legal fees of the eviction process. Obviously, it also applies to every other state, even if the fees thing is different there for some reason.

      • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Okay, but are the cops going to rehab the units after they haul the evicted tenants out? Are they going to seize all the tenants property and have it all catalogued and picked up? Plus if every unit is now a crime scene, that’s longer those units will sit empty, generating no income while all the evidence is gathered and then the crime scene cleanup guys show up.

        • Wilco@lemm.ee
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          1 day ago

          Yes, but no. The Sherriff’s office sits everything out on the corner (not just the front of the house) when they evict in my state. They tell people not to touch stuff while they are there, but its a free for all the minute they pull off.

          • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Okay, property is seized and tenants are deported, but that all takes time. I mean, I guess the “free market will fix it” by some enterprising and shitty American starting a company that assists landlords in cleaning up after a rent strike.