I think gouging only applies if you take advantage of a people due to an event where the community should becoming together.
If day 1 after of the flood you gave notice to jack rent by 50% because you know your tenant has no other options that is gouging. You are taking advantage of a situation which you should be helping as part of the community. You are also taking advantage of something not essential to your business plan.
However over a year later setting rent to the market rate is not gouging it is following your business plan of rent at the maximum value you can while maintaining high quality tenants and a low vacancy rate. I don't see how you call it gouging.
I also suspect many of these so called gouging cases are when properties change hand and the rent increases. The original owners had less debt and were more concerned with tenant stability than maximizing cash flow. The new guys with much higher costs have to maximize cash flow to make the investment worthwhile. I know of three cases amongst friends on the tenant side where 30% plus increases were caused by sales of properties. They also new that they were stealing the property from the land lord previously.
|