No, because I've seen this with my own eyes and heard it time and again. Landlords quoting a ridiculous rent to someone not from the city -- and getting that rent. Even I was screwed once, thinking I had a reasonable rent and then finding out -- after going to landlord-tenant court -- that the registered rent was actually one-third of what I'd been paying and I'd been illegally overcharged (yes, the landlord was ordered to refund the overage).
New Jersey is a free rent market. Hoboken and Jersey City rents went sky-high from the 1980s on -- even as ginormous skyscraper apartments were being built on the waterfront as "affordable" (to who!) apartments. Everyone who had lived there for decades got screwed out of living there.
> No, because I've seen this with my own eyes and heard it time and again.
This is completely irrelevant. The problem persists no matter what you think people 'should' do. The only thing that will change the status quo are laws that prohibit people from taking advantage of others.
Ultimately, this is just an instance of a classic conservative vs. liberal debate, so you may simply be incapable of seeing my point of view.
That said, I'm curious for myself how I might stick landlords on illegally high fees. In New York, what would be the best way to go about this? Is there a database I could refer to, or an agency I could get in touch with?
