<p>D will be living on campus in the fall as a freshman, but the dorm is not owned by the university and functions separately from the rest of the on-campus housing. We signed a lease in May and paid a deposit. Yesterday D received a spam email from the dorm saying they had new lower rates and were waiving the deposit on new leases. The new rate is $20 a month lower than what we signed for. That’s $200 over 10 months minus the $55 application fee for a total of $255 in savings for people who sign leases from here on out. I should also mention that the dorm is also offering a $200 gift-card instead of the rent decrease for new leases as another option. It may not sound like much, and D has scholarships to help, but she could use that savings to apply towards the mandatory freshman meal plan which just increased by $200 a semester. </p>
<p>I called the dorm and spoke with one of the managers asking if we could sign a new lease at the lower rate given the fact that D has not even moved in yet and was told there was nothing that could be done for those who have already signed a lease, even though D doesn’t even move in until August. I asked for someone higher up in the chain to contact us. I’m having a hard time accepting this answer and want to pursue it at the next level.</p>
<p>Am I just wasting my time or do I have a chance at getting the lower rate or at least the giftcard? Has anyone else ever been in a similar situation with the rent decreasing before move-in with a lease signed at a higher price? If so, what did you do? I was told that the new lower rates went into effect based on market conditions and other housing competition. I don’t know if notifying the university would help since this dorm is a separate entity from the other dorms even though it’s on campus. I believe this dorm just opened last August (newly built). </p>
<p>Any feedback/suggestions on where to go with this would be appreciated.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t waste my time. You have no case legally, and the landlord is rightfully responding to market conditions. Your D was willing to pay the higher rent to assure herself a spot in the building, but others apparently aren’t, so the landlord is doing what is necessary to fill the apartments. If housing had become scarce and the landlord had raised the rent after your D signed the lease, you wouldn’t expect to be asked to pay the higher amount, right? A deal’s a deal. (If this really bothers you, don’t ever ask your seatmate on an airplane how much he paid for his ticket!) All I can suggest is that you may be able to negotiate a better deal if your D agrees to a longer term lease–many landlords will take less money to avoid the hassle of re-renting.</p>
<p>From the dorm’s website, I see that there are waiting lists for two of the three floorplans. Is your daughter going to be in the one floorplan without the waiting list? </p>
<p>You are getting and paying for what you signed a contracted. </p>
<p>If the rent had INCREASED after you signed the lease, surely you wouldn’t be complaining that you want to pay more? They are not, and never intended to cheat you or take advantage of you, so you have no real grounds for complaint. Sure, it would be nice if they extended the decrease to you, but they are under no legal (and probably not even moral) grounds to do so.</p>
<p>I think you have signed a PRE-lease. You have placed the unit on hold. A lease usually becomes official when you move in. You are not even obligated to move in.</p>
<p>If your signed lease isnt official yet (no reqt to move in), then go ahead and contact them. You can choose to walk away and lose your deposit.</p>
<p>You can try to pursue it further, but as others have said, when you sign up to be sure to get something, and the price goes down, you often are stuck by the terms of what you signed. You got the unit for certain, something that may or may not have happened had you waited till now. Happens with airline tickets, sale items, lots of things. </p>
<p>Update:<br>
We were able to sign for a new lower lease rate. I spoke with three people (on the phone) total and sent one email with great success. A double bonus was that the rate went down another $25 a month for a total saving of $45 a month x 10 months = $455 for the school year compared to the lease we had already signed. Never just assume something can’t be done after speaking with just one person. It doesn’t hurt to try. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. We are very thankful for the new lease rate!</p>
<p>I don’t think it was a ‘pre-lease’; I don’t think there is such a thing (an application?) as whey both sign, it’s a contract. It’s a contract to rent it for a time in the future. No, there is no obligation to move in but then there are probably damages set out in the contract (forfeit security deposit or a set amount). The landlord just realized it would be better to have it rented for a year at the lower rate than to just have the forfeited deposit.</p>
<p>As a leasing agent, I work with this sort of contract all of the time. It was not a prelease, it was the real deal. We have people signing leases before they take affect all of the time. We generally try to have renewals signed 6 weeks before the renewal date so that we are not scrambling on the last day trying to sign a zillion renewals all at the last minute.</p>
<p>I think the OP got lucky that they agreed to give her the discount, they were not legally required to do so. The benefit for the landlord is that he has a happy resident who is more likely to want to renew for next year.</p>
<p>I doubt it was a “Pre-Lease”. That is not a legal document. If you mean a Non-Refundable Holding Fee document, that might be true. As a landlord, my tenants secure a property by signing a Lease. </p>
<p>OP, all you can do is ask. Maybe you will have favor, and get the new rate, but you are locked in at the current rate if you actually have a Lease. </p>