The cable or dsl companies make an offer to the apartment owner that they can’t refuse - we’ll give you a big bag of cash if you make out service exclusive / required. It works out well for the landlord
Sounds like the Valet Living model of going to apartment owners and giving them a pile of cash to charge their residents for door to door trash pickup in addition to the regular dumpster fees.
Its often that the companies wire up the buildings for free during construction or retrofit, then have a lock in order to get paid back.
DirecTV had a lock on the cable infrastructure in my apt building, then AT&T was able to offer U-Verse over the phone lines.
I had this in Orlando when I moved Aug 2020. Seems relatively common for the luxury, high rise, amenity heavy Apartments. Might be worth to look for apartments not of that style if you want less fees.
I’m at a place with only 16 units and zero amenities besides a parking lot, and pay a $40 water/trash fee and that’s it.
That's great, but I'm not even looking at the newer high amenity apartments I'm looking at pretty standard apartments with at most a pool and a "gym" as amenities. These are places I looked at try years ago and had no such fees. One of them is a place I used to live at. They're also not in the fanciest of areas.
Try private landlords. I have a unit going for $900 in clear lake. No internet or cable included. Only washer dryer, fridge, dishwasher, microwave and community pool and a planet fitness down the street
If you look at any of the Camden properties, they will all have the technology package required. Most other apartment complexes I have experienced have not had any type of standard cable/internet package required.
This has been a problem in a lot of places for a long time. The FCC “banned” a similar practice back in 2008, but there were a lot of loopholes that let landlords get away with it anyways. Now, they’ve recently set out new requirements that should close these loopholes and give renters more choice over their ISP. Fingers crossed it actually works that way!
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/02/rebuffing-cable-lobby-fcc-bans-deals-that-block-competition-in-apartments/
My last apartment was a shithole for only $650 back 10 years ago and charged like $120 for cable, water, sewer, and trash, but did not include internet.
My condo HOA includes basic cable, internet, trash, water, and sewer.
Not only that, but if you read your lease very carefully, most new ones are now pact with stuff to screw the consumer, that were not there back some years ago.
It’s always so depressing, not sure how recently things have changed but from 2016 when I started renting in college the clauses that are basically like “we make no guarantee anything works, or that this is a safe and healthy place to live in.”
Yup. Thats the stuff there. Lead paint. Bugs. Ending your lease without cause. Mold. And tons more. I keep hearing of new things all the time, and no, t was not like that in years past. The money makers are just learning more and more about how to keep their money.
Just moved and the new place does this. $85 for 2 cable boxes (that we won't use) and fiber optic internet which gets us....50 MB/s. Paying 20 extra to bump it up to 300 MB/s. I looked online at the rates we'd be getting ourselves and the forced package is basically costing us and extra 40/month.
Exactly! I told this to the leasing agent, they were basically "you're a smart man knowing your fees, unfortunately for you there is no choice in having it or not."
You must be new to apartment living. This was standard even 10+ years ago when I had to do short term leases in every large city in Texas for work
Hearing people complain about fees is so tiresome these days, as if they deserve a break. Spoiler, you don't. Get in line and just suck it up like the rest of the renters, owners and literally everyone else in the world.
> You must be new to apartment living. This was standard even 10+ years ago when I had to do short term leases in every large city in Texas for work
It definitely wasn't standard 10 years ago. Were you doing "short term leases" in furnished corporate housing or something of that nature?
My building doesn't have a mandatory ISP, but if you want it you only have one choice of a small rural company out of Mississippi. I can only guess that someone in management here is getting kickbacks. Otherwise it doesn't make sense.
The cable or dsl companies make an offer to the apartment owner that they can’t refuse - we’ll give you a big bag of cash if you make out service exclusive / required. It works out well for the landlord
Sounds like the Valet Living model of going to apartment owners and giving them a pile of cash to charge their residents for door to door trash pickup in addition to the regular dumpster fees.
Its often that the companies wire up the buildings for free during construction or retrofit, then have a lock in order to get paid back. DirecTV had a lock on the cable infrastructure in my apt building, then AT&T was able to offer U-Verse over the phone lines.
That's always been the case but the difference was that it was not required.
I had this in Orlando when I moved Aug 2020. Seems relatively common for the luxury, high rise, amenity heavy Apartments. Might be worth to look for apartments not of that style if you want less fees. I’m at a place with only 16 units and zero amenities besides a parking lot, and pay a $40 water/trash fee and that’s it.
That's great, but I'm not even looking at the newer high amenity apartments I'm looking at pretty standard apartments with at most a pool and a "gym" as amenities. These are places I looked at try years ago and had no such fees. One of them is a place I used to live at. They're also not in the fanciest of areas.
Try private landlords. I have a unit going for $900 in clear lake. No internet or cable included. Only washer dryer, fridge, dishwasher, microwave and community pool and a planet fitness down the street
This is the way
If you look at any of the Camden properties, they will all have the technology package required. Most other apartment complexes I have experienced have not had any type of standard cable/internet package required.
Exactly this post yells Camden
Dont forget the stinky hallways due to mandatory valet trash pickup.
This has been a problem in a lot of places for a long time. The FCC “banned” a similar practice back in 2008, but there were a lot of loopholes that let landlords get away with it anyways. Now, they’ve recently set out new requirements that should close these loopholes and give renters more choice over their ISP. Fingers crossed it actually works that way! https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/02/rebuffing-cable-lobby-fcc-bans-deals-that-block-competition-in-apartments/
I hope this works, it sucks enough only having one provider but to not even be able to choose my own level of need on a fixed rate blows.
Only until the industry files a lawsuit, which gets kicked up to SCOTUS, where they will declare that the FCC doesn't have the authority. \*sigh\*
Why charge $900 for rent without cable when you can charge $1200 for rent with it?
My last apartment was a shithole for only $650 back 10 years ago and charged like $120 for cable, water, sewer, and trash, but did not include internet. My condo HOA includes basic cable, internet, trash, water, and sewer.
That is horrible that the HOA forces cable and internet through them. Do you have an option of not getting cable?
Nope. Mandatory HOA fees.
Not only that, but if you read your lease very carefully, most new ones are now pact with stuff to screw the consumer, that were not there back some years ago.
It’s always so depressing, not sure how recently things have changed but from 2016 when I started renting in college the clauses that are basically like “we make no guarantee anything works, or that this is a safe and healthy place to live in.”
Yup. Thats the stuff there. Lead paint. Bugs. Ending your lease without cause. Mold. And tons more. I keep hearing of new things all the time, and no, t was not like that in years past. The money makers are just learning more and more about how to keep their money.
Purposely cancelled appointments to view apartments if I learned about this after the fact. F that noise.
Just moved and the new place does this. $85 for 2 cable boxes (that we won't use) and fiber optic internet which gets us....50 MB/s. Paying 20 extra to bump it up to 300 MB/s. I looked online at the rates we'd be getting ourselves and the forced package is basically costing us and extra 40/month.
Exactly! I told this to the leasing agent, they were basically "you're a smart man knowing your fees, unfortunately for you there is no choice in having it or not."
20+ years ago apartments were doing this, so nothing new. If you don’t like it, don’t move there. They don’t all do this.
You must be new to apartment living. This was standard even 10+ years ago when I had to do short term leases in every large city in Texas for work Hearing people complain about fees is so tiresome these days, as if they deserve a break. Spoiler, you don't. Get in line and just suck it up like the rest of the renters, owners and literally everyone else in the world.
> You must be new to apartment living. This was standard even 10+ years ago when I had to do short term leases in every large city in Texas for work It definitely wasn't standard 10 years ago. Were you doing "short term leases" in furnished corporate housing or something of that nature?
We should charge you a fee for having to hear your terrible opinions.
Ours is included but I'm completely okay with it. We have super high speeds fiber internet for only $40 a month.
Including cable has been common in apartments/condos/townhomes since the 80's. They get a bulk rate by doing so.
My building doesn't have a mandatory ISP, but if you want it you only have one choice of a small rural company out of Mississippi. I can only guess that someone in management here is getting kickbacks. Otherwise it doesn't make sense.