Me and my wife live in a 3 1/2 apartment, we really love the area and the building, we also both work full time. We have asked the landlord for the last 2 and a half years for a 4 1/2 apartment. They constantly tell us there are none available.

I asked today again and it's the same story, none available, so we had a friend call this afternoon... and guess what... there is one available. Also we spoke to another couple in our building who also asked, they were shown the apartment but told they could not afford the rent increase.

It would be an increase of $150.00 per month for us (it would have been an increase of $300 for our friends who were told they could not afford it), are they maybe not telling us because they think we can't afford it either? But still, why lie, they admitted to our friends that there was one available.

My second question... can a landlord refuse to move us to a bigger apartment in the same building, do I have any recourse?

p.s. My current lease expires in 90 days and they already gave us the papers to sign to either renew or move out.

A guess is if its only $150.00 a month more for you "both" combined and $300.00 a month for them they want the extra $150.00 a month more from a new renter.
For any reason you might have paid rent late a couple of times that may be their flag to tell you none are available.
The other couple in the complex was told 'They" could not "afford" it seems to indicate their rent history or the records the complex has on their combined income and by that basis to them they told them they could not afford it.
Many apt. complexes has a base criteria for what an income basically needs to be for a person(s) to be able to afford that unit. Weather its right or wrong it is like making or giving a car loan and certain things need to be in place.
I have rental property and many times perspective Tennant's don't have enough income to meet the rental rate. If their looking at a 1,5000.00 a month and only making $3,0000.00 a month not good math to collect rent. One can look at it and say thats not right If I want it and have the 1st month rent and sec and a job who is it fir them to tell me i can't afford it. Well doesn't a bank do thee exact thing for a car loan or a mortgage. Our country is going bankrupt because of credit allowed when it didn't really qualified. I would actually ask the office out right and say you know for a fact there was a bigger unit available and clear it up. One other possibility is how you or the other person took care of your apartments.
See how you make out. I don't know all the laws here and some of theses are carried out wrong and have killed trillions of dollars in realists value in rental property and our everybody's taxes goes up because of it. But thats another story. I hope I gave you some possible reasons here weather its write or wrong or not within the law and I'm sure thats basically what you are looking here for. Only a professional qualified legal person can answer that for you Im just trying to give the human nature side here of "Why"
Good Luck and hope it works out for you!!

Signed 21 Boat

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Originally Posted by Lowtax4eva

My second question... can a landlord refuse to move us to a bigger apartment in the same building, do I have any recourse?

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Hello Low:

He can refuse to rent to you for any reason whatsoever. Of course, he can't discriminate against you, but you already live there, so for sure, he ISN'T doing that. Nope. You have NO recourse.

excon

I'm not a legal expert, but I don't see why he couldn't refuse you the apartment upgrade... it's his property and his prerogative to control who goes where. If he doesn't want you in a certain place, I would assume that you won't be moving into that place.

He could be thinking that he could keep it open in the hopes that someone else will come along that he can up the rent for... you already know what you'd pay. Maybe he wants to charge more for the larger apartment.

Sorry, seems like you're renting from a "persnikity" person!

Yeah this is what I assumed, that they can simply decide based on their own criteria.

Also I never said, my friends who wanted it currently live in a 1 1/2 so moving to a 4 1/2 would be over $300 more a month, we are in a 3 1/2 now and if they gave it to us we would pay $150 more.

Anyway, we have been looking at other buildings and will most likely not renew here.

UPDATE: I called our local housing commission and they said the same thing, they can't force the landlord to rent it to us and the landlord can decide based on payment history and income whether to rent it to us or not.

However, because the landlord keeps telling us for the past 2 years were "on the list" for a 4 1/2 and is lying right to our face about not having any available it is a violation of our rights... in Quebec (where I live) there is a Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and apparently this is considered discrimination and/or exclusion. The person at the housing commission is not a lawyer but gave me a number to make a complaint if I so choose. If I ever do I'll follow up and say what happened.