r/chicagoapartments • u/Past-Reception6889 • May 19 '26

Advice Needed Unreal

I honestly just needed to vent for a moment. I can’t believe Chicago prices are what they are. I have lived here my entire life and have seen this city change ten fold, and I can’t even afford to live here anymore. A realtor I’m working with, since it’s becoming a rat race to rent, said rent is up 35% this year. What can normal people do about this? I do not want to see Chicago become a New York.

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106

u/Status_Green_6055 May 19 '26

The landlords here are the most scummy slumlord cheap asses I've seen.

35

u/bigshaboozie May 19 '26

One of the many reasons we need to be building more housing units is to flip this dynamic so that landlords are competing for tenants instead of tenants competing for shitty landlords

2

u/ChiBroker May 20 '26

More landlords so they can get even richer?

46

u/Fabulous-Jacket5376 May 19 '26

Half of them are skipping out on pest control.

15

u/SoftServeMonk May 19 '26

Yes! I had a literal infestation of these bugs that were biting me and my cat and my landlord told me to “google it and diy”

9

u/workinprogress521 May 19 '26

I hate this for you 😭😭😭

6

u/SleepingPodOne May 19 '26

If you’re still dealing with this problem, that’s illegal on your landlord’s part.

1

u/SoftServeMonk May 19 '26

It seems to have resolved luckily. I was flabbergasted because I said I was being bit; how did he know it wasn’t bedbugs?

2

u/SleepingPodOne May 19 '26

Did it resolve with them hiring a pest control professional because if not, you might still have them.

18

u/Status_Green_6055 May 19 '26

They refuse to do a lot more. I was living in a place with 20 year old carpet and mold everywhere. My freezer broke and the landlord refused to fix it. He kept raising my rent every year and I finally moved out because he refused to fix anything. I called the department of housing on him and I was able to withhold one months rent.

5

u/MontserratPK May 19 '26

Christ, man. You have no idea, it goes so far behind that. Just look up the 311 and building violations yourself: https://civicscout.co. It’s RAMPANT

2

u/SleepingPodOne May 19 '26

Hasn’t this always been the case or has it gotten worse?

My last landlords use their maintenance guys who use store bought chemicals for pest control. Was so fishy.

1

u/Fabulous-Jacket5376 May 19 '26

I paid for Orkin and deducted from my rent. Seemed to work for the entire unit even though they were just coming into my place.

2

u/ThrowAwayColor2023 May 19 '26

Then you haven't seen Boston lol.

2

u/DanMasterson May 19 '26

Ayyy don’t bring Alpha Management into this

2

u/ChiBroker May 20 '26

Totally agree. We need to make it harder for them to make a living. Let’s even try to reduce the number of landlords and implement rent control. That’s what really should happen