A woman from Austin, Texas went viral on TikTok after sharing a “congratulatory” email from her leasing office informing her that her rent will increase by nearly $2,500 per month if she decides to renew her lease.
“They really said GTFO,” TikTok user Katelyn Fletcher (@katelynfletcher)
captioned her clip showing the message from her leasing office informing her of the exorbitant spike.
According to the Daily Dot, Fletcher’s current rent is set at $2,200. With the additional $2,478 increase, her total rent amount will be $4,678 per month if she resigns.
The percentage of the rent increase? A whopping 112.6 percent!
Fletcher’s viral video garnered nearly 76,000 views and 4,272 likes, plus countless comments.
“That seems illegal,” one user wrote, while another commented: “This is insane. I’d like to know how this isn’t illegal.”
Among the comments, many were simply shocked by the boldness of the email’s subject line.
“The audacity to write congratulations in the email,” one user commented.
Another user shared that their rent is also $2,200 and “if they try to pull this on them, they’re gonna start swinging.”
Unfortunately, it looks like this type of rent spike is within Texas state law.
The U.S. does not have a nationwide rent control system to mandate rent or leasing increases, leaving individuals and companies to develop their own standards to keep rent prices in line with the market.
Texas also does not have any laws that support renters either, leaving rent prices to be set by landlords and leasing agencies. In turn, this allows them to spike rent amounts without legal repercussions.
Per Redfin data collected by KVUE, between January 2021 and January 2022, Austin’s average rent increased 35 percent, which is much more than the national average of 15.2 percent.
According to KVUE, the average monthly rent for Austin residents in January 2022 was $2,245, a number much closer to Fletcher’s original monthly rent payment.
Do you think she’ll be calling on movers soon?