In my country such unions are actually mandatory and apartment buildings are collectively owned by everyone living in that building. Active union's are amazing, my building just got a garden and a small bike shed is in the planning. The last place I lived got a whole renovation organize by the union.
No idea what that is. The direct translation to what it is is apartment union. Every resident is a member and we all vote what goes down on the general use areas of the apartment building. People who own their apartment have more leverage with their vote but people who rent have a say as well, most people in my country own an apartment though.
The general purpose areas of the apartment building are owned by everyone who owns an apartment in the building. Renters do have a say in the decision making though.
As for who pays: every apartment union I have been a part of we have a small apartment union charge on our utilities, usually like 10 euros at most. The amount has always been voted on. So everyone living there collectively pays.
What leverage do you have though? You can't go on strike, you're legally obliged to pay the rent you agreed to. You can't withdraw your labour, because you don't do any.
Sounds like it might be more like a coop. Alternatively, unionizing for the purpose of sharing information on the landlords' practices, tenants rights, pooling money for legal help, etc.
I would think that if all the tenants banded together, they could also negotiate on rent rises. I doubt they could prevent them, but they could certainly threaten to refuse to pay collectively if it was too high. Yes, that risks evicting the whole building, but that seems like a bad risk for the management company to take.
Yes it is! Tenant unions are actually steadily gaining steam in the US. When I'm done with my union campaign, I'm going to start organizing my apartment
Interesting. You're giving me ideas! Ideas that I don't know if I have the energy and resources to act on, but something to think about and maybe talk to other neighbors about. We have no rent increase protections or really many tenent rights at all here in Oklahoma and the prices are getting ridiculous..and these are supposed to be low income apartments. Bah.
A lof of European countries do. If you rent long term, your lease is automatically renewed every 12 months and the rent increase is indexed in some consumer/ construction rate set up by the government. So no drastic increase. On the other end, if for some reason the tenant leaves and a new one arrives, the owner can set the new rent price as high as they wish in the limit of what’s authorised by the law as some metro areas have max rent prices and if you try to charge more then you’re fined.
Idk about a union... Maybe instead an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week, But all the decision of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting.
I don't get it.. Like can you say we can't pay your rent? They own the property and can do whatever they want with it? Or is it more like making everyone act in unison so that landlords are forced to take fair rent, or no one rents their prop? I'm down for that
The Deutscher Mieterbund e. V. (DMB) is a federal association of tenants' associations that sees itself as the political representative of the interests of all tenants of residential property in Germany, independent of the state and political parties. It is the umbrella organization of 15 state associations. These in turn, as registered associations under the name "Deutscher Mieterbund," form the umbrella organizations of local tenants' associations at the state level.