I am a prospective tenant and I read A LOT of reviews about crazy rent increases at this location in addition to poor management.

This is a major brake for me to move forward and rent in this complex and to this Landlord.

I have a question in mind regarding current and previous renters. Is someone tried to fill the specific form to complain to the Division of Tenant Landlord Relations at Jersey City about this rent increase practice'

In Jersey City ALL apartment buildings with 5 or more units are rent controlled by municipal ordinance. It prohibits a Landlord owning more than 5 units to increase rents more than 4% yearly except if he submits a specific application prooving that there is a hard reason to do so and claiming the agreement of the city.

You have 2 years to submit your complaint in order to know if these rent increases are legal. If Equity Residential has not filled the right application to ask permission before increasing, the rent increase will be declared illegal and you will be reimbursed !!!

The complaint is free, you have just to make it signed and stamped by a public notary so try it; there is no risk except that Equity Residential stops to crazyly increase rents in the buidings they owns in Jersey City.

The information on Jersey City website can be found at

http://www.cityofjerseycity.com/hedc.aspx'id=1182

and the complaint form at

http://mygovhelp.com/JERSEYCITYNJ//FILEXFER/issue_436/Tenant-Landlord_Illegal_Rent_Complaint.pdf

More Jersey City will receive complaints, more Equity Residential will have to stop this way to act.

And by the way, there is also a specific complaint if your landlord refuse to make repairs, it could be useful regarding all the repairs they are not processing.

I do not know if I will rent here, your feedbacks will be very interesting for me to choose.

Sometime some homework can save a lot of money.

User Responses
From: NJAdvisor	Date: 12/04/2008
You will find out that you will be required to sign a statement as part of your lease acknowledging that the lease/property is not subject to the laws you cite. The rule specifically exempts "Newly constructed dwellings with 25 or more dwelling units located within a redevelopment area." In fact, after moving from The Pier to another even newer J.C. rental building, I was also provided a similar form. But more power to you...give it a try! On a related note, I can tell you that after I moved out of this complex, my vacated unit was available for over 3 months after I moved out...and they first advertised it 2 months PRIOR to my moving out. So it took them 5 months to re rent it. They started with their fantasy rent requests, and ultimately lowered the asking rent to over $200 LESS THAN what I was originally paying. I would've been willing to stay at the same rent, but the people responsible for setting rents here are delusional. Hence the large number of vacancies. You'd think they'd learn by now that having an ongoing good tenant is worth more than consistently attempting and failing to achieve increased rent rolls in a market that doesn??????t support it. NOT! Fact is Equity Residential bought NY metro properties near a market peak and is desperate to support their investment.
From: Anonymous	Date: 12/09/2008
I have actually lived here for 4 years, and it is unfortunatel that only the residents with the most problems write in. We did last year have a very high rental increase but it was very much like the rest of the market as I went looking around when I received my renewal letter. This year is a very different situation. Due to the market they are very much willing to work with renewals and mine actually stayed the same with %0 increase. Yes this building has its problems but they all do. I lived at Avalon before here and we had flooding on a monthlky basis. so if all I have to live with is a great location, periodic elevators going down when they have 3 others to use and fire alarms once in a while I will take it. I have never had a problem with the office staff they at least meet with you when you need them, not avoid you like other places I have lived at. Overall I am glad I decided to stay and work with them
From: Anonymous	Date: 12/29/2008
I am a current tenant. The lease renewal rate was terrible. It is usually 10% high than the market raise. I should move out last year however I was lazy to move. This year,the market rate down around 10-20% in newport and exchange place year. Even with 0 increase in rent. My rent is at least 20% high than the market rate. The leasing officer even told me you need spend money and take trouble to move out.... I am glad I finally move out of this overpriced appartment. So avoiding any eqr apartment like pier, portside tower, hudson pointe. They treat their current tenant like cash cow...

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