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In my country such unions are actually mandatory and apartment buildings are collectively owned by everyone living in that building. Active union's are amazing, my building just got a garden and a small bike shed is in the planning. The last place I lived got a whole renovation organize by the union.
That sounds more like a Homeowner's Association to me
I have the same thing in my country and it's called a co-op.
In the us, HOAs are 99.9% pure karen evil concentrate
No idea what that is. The direct translation to what it is is apartment union. Every resident is a member and we all vote what goes down on the general use areas of the apartment building. People who own their apartment have more leverage with their vote but people who rent have a say as well, most people in my country own an apartment though.
What country is this?
Estonia
What does unionizing your building accomplish?
Collective bargaining, same as any unionization
How does a strike work in this case? Stop paying rent?
That's correct, but it's not just "stop paying rent", as that's illegal. In general, a tenant union would either facilitate or assist with helping the tenants set up a rent escrow to be released when the problem is solved and the rent strike ends
What leverage do you have though? You can't go on strike, you're legally obliged to pay the rent you agreed to. You can't withdraw your labour, because you don't do any.
You could work with a court and do something like put it in escrow so the court can see you not paying rent isn't just because you can't. Instead it's about withholding money from landlord to begin negotiations. Basically still acting in good faith but also withholding money to give you leverage. IANAL
Double-check this for your state. For instance, in Ohio if your landlord is not keeping up on their end of maintaining the property you can go to the court and set up an escrow account with them that will hold your rent payments until ALL of the work is completed to YOUR standards, not theirs or the court's, and they are legally barred from taking any action against you for the duration and just about anything they do afterward is immediately suspect of being viewed as "retributive action" which is illegal under the state's renter's rights laws. Always read your rights for your state.
Not sure, but it'd be cool for an entire building to withhold rent for building repairs, or repairs for an individual.
Sounds like it might be more like a coop. Alternatively, unionizing for the purpose of sharing information on the landlords' practices, tenants rights, pooling money for legal help, etc.
I would think that if all the tenants banded together, they could also negotiate on rent rises. I doubt they could prevent them, but they could certainly threaten to refuse to pay collectively if it was too high. Yes, that risks evicting the whole building, but that seems like a bad risk for the management company to take.
Would this be legal in the U.S.?
Yes it is! Tenant unions are actually steadily gaining steam in the US. When I'm done with my union campaign, I'm going to start organizing my apartment
Excellent! I'm a homeowner, but I wish all of the renters in this country a way to get relief and this sounds like a good start!
Y'all don't have a national renters' association that negotiates the rents?
Bro we still have slavery, they just moved it to prisons. Of course we don't have anyone to negotiate rents on our behalf.
Lol no, you just wake up one day and find out your rent is going up $500/month because a lot of people are interested
Idk about a union... Maybe instead an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week, But all the decision of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting.
How does going on strike work when you pay the landlord? what, exactly, is the point of the whole exercise?
Jointly negotiate rent increase or deny payment until maintenance is kept up?
You just get evicted and maybe even prosecuted. The end.
Well the idea is the landlord can't evict everyone in the building at once. They lose a ton of money and it's very hard to go to court that much.
Of course it isn't really like a real union. They can easily replace tenants; it's not a skilled position. Co-ops are better, since you actually own the building.
Rent strikes are a thing
"Come and hang"
.... the landlords? Down
I don't get it.. Like can you say we can't pay your rent? They own the property and can do whatever they want with it? Or is it more like making everyone act in unison so that landlords are forced to take fair rent, or no one rents their prop? I'm down for that
Or is it more like making everyone act in unison so that landlords are forced to take fair rent
This one I think