#LandlordScam #RentalIssues #RealEstateRedFlags
Hey everyone! 👋 So, I’ve been noticing some pretty shady stuff going on with my landlord and I need some advice. Here’s the situation:
– My landlord sold the property shortly after I moved in, leading to a rent increase of $50 a month.
– Turns out, the new owner is actually a company that owns multiple properties in the area. 🤔
– I did some digging and discovered that my landlord has been selling the property to companies he’s associated with for years.
– There seems to be a pattern of selling back and forth between multiple companies owned by my landlord. 🔄
– My neighbor also mentioned being pushed to renegotiate her lease every 6 months.
– I’m in the mortgage industry and know that selling a property way below market value can lead to major tax consequences.
I signed a one-year lease and it feels like my landlord is trying to squeeze more money out of me before the lease is up. 😠
So, my question is, do you think this is illegal? And what steps should I take to address this situation?
Possible solutions:
– Seek legal advice from a real estate attorney
– Contact local tenant rights organizations for support
– Consider reaching out to your local housing authority for guidance
Let’s chat and help each other navigate through these landlord issues! 🏠💡 #TenantRights #LegalAdvice #HousingHelp
You had a lease already. Why would you renegociate for a worse deal? The old lease isn’t typically invalidated by a property sale.
As long as you have a signed lease you don’t have to agree to the new price. The new owner has to abide by the original lease.
I’m a landlord in Texas, I can confirm that if your lease includes a clause to renegotiate on sale that would be legal and enforceable. How that interacts with potential tax fraud or if transferring properties between his business counts as a sale I’m not qualified to say. I’d recommend bringing your concerns up with a Real Estate lawyer.
FWIW vacancies and turnover is very expensive so I’m not sure why your LL thinks it’s a good business practice.
“This is very confusing as I work in mortgage and the reason you do not sell the house at under value is you will owe tax on the value of the property for the sale and Texas, or the IRS, WILL come after you for the difference. Far as I understand it, I’m not a loan officer, if you sell a 100k house for 5k then the state taxes you on 100k as that’s the value of the house”
Well, that gives you a spicy way to return fire. Note that you can potentially collect a bounty on this.
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/how-do-you-report-suspected-tax-fraud-activity#:~:text=Use%20the%20Form%203949%2DA,file%20a%20tax%20fraud%20report.
Does the business have initials of CW? If so I’d love to hear more. We have a guy near me doing that stuff. But you can’t prove any real wrongdoing from what we’ve looked at
Side note: is the landlord a veteran perhaps?
I know with a certain disability rating, veterans don’t pay property taxes in Texas, or they atleast have a discount.
I’m an attorney in TN and I do real estate. This is not a thing in TN, but you should absolutely talk to an attorney. I would think this law would only apply to “arms length transactions”, and this doesn’t sound like an arms length transaction. I wouldn’t waste your time with tax fraud because people can freely transfer property between businesses they own, and I bet the consideration on each of those deeds is between $1-$10.
IRS, local property tax agency, local housing authority (to get their thoughts).
I doubt they did this to raise your rent by $50 six months earlier. This way the run the risk of you backing out and dealing with a vacancy. Not to mention the aggrevation of dealing with renewing the lease.
They may have some larger scheme at play and this is just gravy
He’s doing this so he can depreciate the asset quickly and get tax breaks, then repeat this for the same properties over and over. Totally shady. Report him and collect a bounty.
[https://rentprep.com/blog/real-estate/accelerated-depreciation-real-estate/](https://rentprep.com/blog/real-estate/accelerated-depreciation-real-estate/)