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  • Hacker News
  • Here is the screenshot of the original rental ad, with an also dubious $500 move-in fee: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/1v3n4kw/...
    by randycupertino
  • that application fee is a scam man

    but one of the pieces that didn't make it to the top of reddit's discussion was that it's a shared-living situation, not your own apartment or isolated basement.

    its shitty, but it's not like a landlord trying to regulate how often you're in your own private apartment

    by red-iron-pine
  • you're renting a space per month, and they're essentially adding an extra fee if you're doing more than sleeping there. kinda nuts
    by notfromhere
  • If the FTC had enough time, people and competence, they could get rid off all the apartment junk fees like: valet trash, forcing you to have a cable subscription plan, package locker fee, etc
    by b3ing
  • Why are we writing articles about some random, single-event rental ad. What are we doing here?
    by richwater
  • Assuming nothing illegal, it isn't the landlord's business what a tenant is doing inside, working or sitting around watching TV... why does it matter? They should just be happy the person has a job and can pay the rent on time.
    by al_borland
  • If you really want to do something this dumb, I think it would be less dumb as a landlord to implement this as a discount.

    Submit a pay stub and job offer letter referencing hybrid/in-office/in-person employment and get a $200/month discount.

    The idea of this is not completely crazy. I definitely wear on my home hardware when working from home. However, the rent is supposed to already be covering the typical amount of wear and tear and there’s no need to get this silly about it.

    by Grombobulous
  • > it isn't the landlord's business what a tenant is doing inside, working or sitting around watching TV

    Unfortunately the government is extremely interested in what you do in your property, and this makes it the landlord's business. That said in this case, it seems more like homeowners are renting out a small unit behind their home, and want to disincentivize people who will be there more. Personally if you can work from home I'm not sure why you'd live in a bay area suburb, especially not walnut creek, but to each their own I guess.

    by guywithahat
  • Landlords and HoAs have been doing this for ages, it has just mostly impacted less well-off people until now.

    Want to do some nails as a side hustle, sell homemade goods via the internet, or make extra cash repairing people's cars in your garage over the weekend? Sorry, contract says no, enjoy your eviction for "operating a business" or "commercial use of the property".

    Banning WFH or charging extra for it is just the logical next step. You're working, so that's commercial use! And you're saving money by not having to rent an office and causing extra wear & tear to the property, so to a landlord it is obvious that you should be paying extra - why should you get to freeload, after all?

    by crote
  • Context matters...

    According to the article, the lease (rental rate) includes fully paid utilities and internet.

    The landlords are then saying - if you're going to work from home full time, we'll raise the rate by $200.

    One can dispute the figure/amount but the logic seems reasonable i.e. if you're working from home full time, then you'll probably run the AC for way longer than if you went to the office 5 days a week for at least 6 hours each day, you'll user more internet and/or we might need a higher speed internet/bandwidth, you'll use more power, etc.

    by NearAP
  • Fuck this logic. It's a cash grab.
    by olyjohn
  • >then you'll probably run the AC for way longer than if you went to the office 5 days a week for at least 6 hours each day, you'll user more internet and/or we might need a higher speed internet/bandwidth, you'll use more power, etc.

    This also covers adult children playing games all day, or a variety of other situations. Seems weird to single out work from home.

    by protocolture
  • Using more Internet at work than at night playing 4K Netflix or downloading 100GB+ games and multi-GB patches? Doubtful.
    by rchaud
  • Who pays per byte for internet?!

    The other points are well made, though. The lesson, I suppose: bills included is a bad idea. The incentives are misaligned all round.

    by tom_