Since selling my last sfh, I have checked in now and again. Today, I had a question asked involving multi-family housing that stumped me. This is in the Chicago metro area, in Schaumsburg, IL.

The situation: a relative and her bf are living in a 1 br apartment in a complex. The lease is up at the end of the year. They visited the complex office to inquire about eventually making a move to a 2br, with no specific timeline. They were informed that a "new policy (was) in effect immediately" that any apartment changes, whether mid-lease OR at the end of a lease, incur a $1000 fee.

Their questions - if this is not specifically addressed in the lease that they signed in December, can they be held to that policy (I'm thinking yes)?

Also, they understand that a mid-lease turnover is costly for the complex. If the answer to the first question is that they can be held to that fee policy, then what is the wisdom behind the fee to move within the complex at lease renewal time? (Wouldn't the turnover cost to the complex be the same whether they moved out of the complex completely OR moved to a larger apartment on the property? They are good, quiet tenants who pay on time.)

Having never had to deal with tenants of multis who wanted to switch rentals, I'm hoping that someone here can enlighten me (and them).

Thanks, all - while I miss the banter and education here, I sure don't miss the work and hassle of landlording. 27 years was quite enough!

I can see charging for a move mid-lease, but to charge an existing good tenant that much for moving to a unit that fits their needs better?? Seems like a really poor business practice. You're treating existing tenants worse than new tenants, and everyone knows it's more expensive to attract new customers than to retain the ones you already have.

Is it legal? Unless their existing lease addresses this specific situation, I'd say yes.

To add, I think the apartment complex is being a bit greedy, however, they (the tenants) would have the higher cost of moving to a new location. Rental moving van, fuel, time moving, ect...

It's harder to move "locally" than to a new place requiring a truck and moving help - I once moved across the street and it was the hardest move ever, I still remember it and I've moved A LOT. We barely packed, thinking we would move it from one place to the same place in the next house (closet to closet, for instance) and without a truck we had to move all the furniture twice as far, it seemed. Awful.

The biggest issue in allowing a tenant to move from one place to another is the 24 hours from noon on last day of our lease to noon on the first day. We use that time to do last minutes to the places as we show and rent occupied homes.

If a tenant is moving out, we don't care about what happens after noon. If they are moving in to our place, we don't have to care what happens before noon. If they are switching it becomes a problem for us.

I don’t like the extra expensive fee. Unless there was somw misunderstanding related to an expense for a larger unit.

I’ve always allowed switching; it’s served me well. Saved me the time and stress of advertising, vetting, orientation and all the misc records to change or add to.

On the flip side, cleaning and damages would need to be deducted from the deposit and all that paperwork should be done. I applied the remainder of the deposit to the new unit. And they needed to pay the amount remaining on the new deposit and rent.

In one case a roommate wanted to move to anothe

r of our units to be free to have her boyfriend over. One girl stayed and one girl rented another apartment of ours.

Great seeing you again!