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| *Travel Tips>>>Chicago Travel Tips |
Did City Chicago increase their gas for heating, electricity, real estate taxes, and scavenger service bills? |
Travel Info Because our landlord is increasing our 2 bedroom apartment from $850-900 because of the reasons above. And what the hell is scavenger service bills? Did real estate taxes, scavenger service bills, gas and heat really went up? Because I'm going to complain to the landlord next week. Give me the best answers please. City of Chicago only please Travel Tips Real Estate taxes can always go up, since the property value is usually going up. Gas rates are set by the gas company (and the cost of natural gas) and rates are actually lower this year. Additionally, since (until now) it has been a pretty warm winter, heating costs have been low. Electric rates just recently went through the roof, but unless you have electric heat, this is not really a huge impact. Scavenger Service bills? Sounds like he's making that up, but who knows. The real answer is that, unless you have a lease, he can raise the rent as he wants. You, of course, have the option of paying the rent or finding someplace else. It might be a pain for him to find new renters, and he might lose a full month's rent if you move out and he cannot find new renters in time. Or, maybe $900 is still a good deal and he won't have a problem if you move out. It's really up to you now. If you think it is easy enough to find another place for less than $900, then you should negotiate to keep your rent down. Others No, he's not making up "scavenger service". It's a fancy term for trash removal. This is how it is listed on the tax bills. Gas and electricity are NOT included in taxes, but those have gone up as well. You must have missed all the TV / newspaper coverage on Com Ed (Excelon) but it's pretty commonly known here that they have had a rate freeze for over a decade and it was lifted. Therefore the bills are going to be sky-high. The tax bills just came out last week & they are on three year cyclical increases. Unless you're living in a really crummy unsafe neighborhood you are not being overcharged for your rent. If you want cheaper rent you could move to the suburbs, but then you'd have commuting costs. http://www.cookcountytreasurer.com... http://www.peoplesenergy.com/residential... Rathern than speculate, check with people who should know. There are several tenants rights organizations in the city. Their web addresses are below. Check them out and see if they have any info on what a landlord can charge you for and what he can't. There maybe phone numbers on the websites; call them if you can. i've been through that too. http://www.renters-rights.com/html/chica... http://www.tenants-rights.org/index.php?... http://www.chicagoareahousing.org/allinf... |
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