[vijayr]

All of this is true, it is unethical and illegal. But it is also true, that in cities like San Francisco and NYC (especially SF-Co) rents are absurdly high, and landlords care nothing other than making the most of it. My previous two landlords forced me to pay only cash for rent, and I know many other landlords do the same, and cheat on taxes.

In one place I went, they wanted 450$ for "application fee and credit check", and it was not even a luxury apartment, wasn't in Manhattan or any high rent place.

I am not defending any party here - just pointing out, noone in this mess is totally ethical.

[fennecfoxen]

Usually the places that want $450ish, it's a single check that they'll hold onto and, iff they decide to give you the apartment, they'll actually take it (otherwise they return the check). That way they're guaranteed that you're a serious applicant (or they get a consolation sum if you're not). It's sort of a like a security deposit on your application.

I don't care for it myself.

[tptacek]

What about the legitimate tenants in the building?

[tlrobinson]

California has limits on what landlords can charge for "application fees". I think it's around $40.

[moreorless]

"All of this is true, it is unethical and illegal. But it is also true, that in cities like San Francisco and NYC (especially SF-Co) rents are absurdly high, and landlords care nothing other than making the most of it. My previous two landlords forced me to pay only cash for rent, and I know many other landlords do the same, and cheat on taxes."

Way to go on painting every single landlord as greedy bastards who care about nothing other than squeezing every single penny out of the tenant based on your own personal limited experience. Don't be so quick to generalize that all landlords are slumlords. For every story of landlord abuse, there is one for tenants who take advantage of the system as well.

[dllthomas]

> For every story of landlord abuse, there is one for tenants who take advantage of the system as well.

And there are occasional stories of landlords being awesome, too - ours let us use her wifi while we waited for our net to be hooked up, for instance.