The landlord had told them he wanted to raise the rent to $3,500 and when they complained he decided to raise it to $9,500.
“We know that our building is not rent controlled and this was something we were always worried about happening and there is no way we can afford $9,500 per month," Yumna Farooq said.
Exactly. To accept a lease on a property that you know doesn’t have automatic rent control, and to not contractually obligate the landlord to long-term price controls in that rental agreement, is reckless. They took the high risk gamble and lost. Such is life. But to then complain that their high risk scheme, which was done to screw over other renters who are more careful, didn’t work out is plain antisocial behaviour.