this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2026
182 points (98.4% liked)
Asklemmy
54161 readers
339 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy ๐
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 7 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I moved to Chicago a few years. I go to rent an apartment. It has a "move-in" fee.
I'm like what's that.
Oh it's $500 that you don't get back.
I say. What about the deposit? They say. Oh yeah we don't require that. Isn't that great ,?
I'm like. So move in fee is my deposit but it's just guaranteed I won't get it back.
Them: well it's different. It's a move in fee. We don't require a deposit but if you don't clean out the apartment to this list of specifications, we will charge you per item you miss.
Example. Refrigerator not cleaned :$150 Floors not clean : $200
Etc.
So I was super unhappy about this and complained to anyone who would listen. To which my new Chicago neighbors and friends were like "that's how it's always been here,"
Bro. Y'all getting fucked. Hard. Non refundable deposit where you still have to clean out the old apartment.
Wtf. Should be illegal.
that's why you stiff em the last month's rent
At least in Chicago, many landlords require references from past landlords when you are applying for a new apartment, so flaking on rent or trashing a place before moving out can doom your future endeavors.
Unless you get lucky and find a private owner to rent from that doesn't bother with checking backgrounds.
Then you just have to deal with them taking ages to repair anything and letting themselves into your apartment unannounced to 'check on things'.
In my experience the private landlords are the ones who actually fix shit. Last corp landlord I had lost a civil suit for 20 million in Cambridge mass for not maintaining the property.
I've had the opposite experience but I think it's always a gamble with landlords. Especially when moving to a new city and you can't ask around.
It's very hit or miss. Not all landlords are good or bad.
I know and I've been lucky in that regard...I will never rent from a corporate landlord again...I highly recommend avoiding Northland property.
as well as any llc
Just give your landlord a burner phone number. Don't even clean the jizz stains when you leave.
What the fuck? So it's just a deposit you're garuanteed to not get back? What if you don't "miss" anything when cleaning up? You're not getting your money back anyway so why clean anything when you're moving out?
Yeah there was a whole list of things and the fine for not cleaning the items. So you had to make sure you got it super clean or you would get all the fines.
Of which amounted to something close to $1000.
I spent 2 days cleaning it when I moved out to make sure I didn't get any of the fines.
You can basically get black listed as a renter if you don't clean well.
Florida does both