Rent Increase

Aug 3 18:00 UTC 1998

Grex received a bill today from Flying Dutchman Management, for $456.00 in
back rent.  It seems they have taken over the management of the building
containing the Pumpkin (the room containing Grex).

I called them and spoke with a Ms. Susan Watrous.  We had a very strained
conversation.  Apparently Flying Dutchman is under the impression that
Marcia Van Fossen (the widow of our late landlord) raised everyone's rent
last November.  We received no notice of any such increase, and I told Ms. 
Watrous that and read her the part of our lease where it says the lease is
in effect until one party gives 4 months notice.  She asked me to mail her
a copy of the lease, and she said she will take care of removing the
past-due charges, but she said to consider this 4 months notice that the
rent will indeed be increasing from $60/month to $117/month.

So, we have to think about what we want to do.  $57/month is a hefty
increase in our monthly expenses, but it would cost us a lot to move, too.

response 2 of 51:

Aug 3 18:12 UTC 1998

That's an extreme increase.  Maybe we could do some deal with the electricity?
For that matter, is electricity (our large use of it) included in this new
rent rate?

response 4 of 51:

Aug 3 22:16 UTC 1998

Why would it be expensive to move?  If we are considering changing phone lines
anyway, could the move coincide with changing phone lines?  Install the new
lines somewhere else before cancelling the old lines.
        Is the NEW Center available?  Some church?  A storage locker somewhere?
(Heated one).  Some other non-profit?  What does Arbornet pay?

response 6 of 51:

Aug 4 00:09 UTC 1998

Grex has moved twice before. Finding suitable space has been a big
hassle *every* time. I hope that we can work something out to be
able to stay where we are. But $720/year is a lot of money for us.

response 10 of 51:

Aug 4 03:26 UTC 1998

Yes, the woman who owns the building seemed awfully nice the time I talked
to her, and seemed to understand our need to keep our costs down.  She even
came back an hour or two later and donated some old computer equipment.  The
management company apparrently said they think she notified everybody in the
building of the rent increase, but she didn't notify us.  Perhaps she and the
management company have miscommunicated on this.

All that aside, that space is very nice for us for a number of reasons, but
as a practical matter it is small and windowless, and in a rather dingy
building.  The new rental rate looks to me about what commercial rates in that
building would be expected to be if the space were being marketed as an
office, and not as a storage room, which it was when we rented it.  A
commercial space would be expected to include electricity, and indeed all the
other spaces in the building do, I believe.  We were paying for our own
electricity because we were using equipment that consumed more power than our
cheap storage room rent.  However, if it were an office, they would expect
us to have computer equipment.  If they're going to charge us that rate, we
should be able to make a pretty good case for including electricity.

response 20 of 51:

Aug 5 03:19 UTC 1998

Flying Dutchman is a big company. If they think the "pumpkin" is worth
$117/month, ask if they have a nook or cranny somewhere, of similar size,
which they consider to be worth less (if moving is an option). Sometimes,
shopping mall expansions create unusual or unrentable spaces here and
there.

response 22 of 51:

Aug 6 02:31 UTC 1998

We pay electricity money to the landlord, not to Detroit Edison directly.
But you have a point.

response 24 of 51:

Aug 6 03:20 UTC 1998

(You made an error in subtraction, Mike - the difference is $684.)
I should call Ameritech and ask them what it would cost us to move.