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swan_pr@lemmy.ca 9 months agoI agree that the landlord is a shitstain, but that tenant is not the best at decision making either. I can understand spending a couple of hundreds if it makes your life better, but she basically handed over a 12k check to that landlord. I can’t see any good reason to do this.
fear@kbin.social 9 months ago
Renting isn't the greatest decision, either. You're throwing money at a landlord and gaining zero equity. People often do it because it's that or homelessness. These systems are in place to take advantage of people who aren't the best decision makers. Just because they can be taken advantage of... should they be? Or should we be better than this and revamp how we house people so that it isn't a massive scam with the opportunity for extra side scams like we see here?
If the landlord wasn't a massive dick, they both could have benefited from this situation. She'd have the renovated bathroom she wanted, and the landlord knew his property was being taken care of without even needing to lift a finger. Instead he got greedy, and rather than blame the greedy jerk people want to jump on the "stupid" victim. Except it's not her fault her landlord was a prick.
dingus@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Renting can sometimes be more advantageous than owning. You don’t have to pay for maintenance and you have the ability to pick up and move a lot easier.
I own now, and even though I own a very small condo and was able to put enough money down so that I don’t have to pay mortgage insurance…owning has been more expensive per month than renting for me… I get that it’s not always this way, but right now everything is shit for everyone.
fear@kbin.social 9 months ago
True. Back when I rented it was a good situation because my rent was dirt cheap and I was able to save money. Seems those days are long gone with rentals sometimes being double or triple what a mortgage payment would be.
dingus@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Nah I mean for me it’s the opposite. Buying something made my monthly cost much higher than renting. I was hoping it would do the opposite but that wasn’t the case. :/
swan_pr@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
Renting is basically the only way to have housing in certain parts of the world. In large cities too. Not everyone that rents is bad at decision making or on the verge of homelessness…
In this specific case, she was able to blow 12k in renos on a rental and has a Roche Bobois couch that’s worth at least 10k in the setup she has (she mentions this on her twitter feed). To be fair, she also says she realizes she made a terrible mistake and is taking the criticism in stride, so good for her, lesson learned. All this to say, yes she acted stupidly, regardless of how shitty the landlord seem to be.
I agree with you that the housing system needs to change. That conversation has been going on forever. But the solution is not to have everyone strive to own a house.