Trailer park tenants say landlord sends note implying a vote for Biden is a vote for increased rent

[DrScholl]

https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/local-politics/trailer-park-biden-voter-intimidation-letter/73-56daf9cd-5eb8-49eb-a768-4e3cb08640a3

According to several pictures of the letter sent to 9NEWS, it reads:   

“TO ALL TENANTS:
Please understand IF Joe Biden is elected as our next President, everything you do and have to pay for will change completely.

Everything will be increased. Like paying ALOT (sic) more in taxes, utilities, gasoline, groceries, new permits, fees and regulations…everything! This also means YOUR RENT will be increased to cover these expenses. Most likely, rent would DOUBLE in price!

IF the current President is re-elected, WE WILL NOT RAISE THE RENT FOR AT LEAST 2 YEARS!

Voting is your choice and we are not telling you how to vote. We are just informing our tenants what WE will do according to the election results.

If Trump wins, we all win. If Biden wins, we all lose.

VOTE on November 3, 2020.”

Clearly, Trump supporters are not taking the prospect of him losing well.

[GP270watch]

 Under what possible scenario would rents in a trailer park DOUBLE because Joe Biden is elected President.

 100% Malarkey.

[lfromnj]

Isn't Trump the one that put the CDC eviction ban?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Under what possible scenario would rents in a trailer park DOUBLE because Joe Biden is elected President.

 100% Malarkey.

The landlord who wrote this letter could double the rents because Joe Biden is elected President.

The thing about "warnings" like this is that it's well within the power of the people giving them to make them come true. Same with factory owners in 1896 "warning" that they would make their workers' lives miserable if Bryan won.

[Indy Texas]

I remember reading some longform article about Trump supporters back in 2016 and one of the people they interviewed was a trailer park owner and the way she was whining about the ungrateful poors who paid rent to her you'd think she was John freaking Galt.

[T'Chenka]

I hope somebody mails him an anonymous letter saying "I VOTED BIDEN, GET F___ED =)".

[Joe Republic]

Doubling your rental income due to a set of imaginary consequences of an event widely expected to happen anyway.  Trump supporters certainly have mastered the Art of the Grift!

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Landlords typically have a weak grasp of economics, or at least tend to exhibit it when trying to "justify" rent increases, tho this "justification" is weaker than usual.  For one thing, only corrupt government contracts guarantee a certain amount of profit.  Increased costs for a providing a good or service don't directly cause increased prices for them. What increased costs do is reduce the willingness of suppliers, in this case of rental properties, to provide them at the previous price. So some combination of a reduction in the supply of rentals and an increase in the price required by landlords happens, but not a linear increase in price.

[jimrtex]

Looking at the satellite photp it is a pretty hardscrabble place. It is conceivable that some regulation from the Biden administration could cause massive increase in costs (e.g. connecting to sewage lines, paving the streets, providing detention ponds, planting grass).

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

This has to be illegal.

If a boss can't intimidate their employees this way ("A vote for Biden is a vote for a pay cut and layoffs!"), then there's no reason this should be allowed.

[Santander]

Doubling your rental income due to a set of imaginary consequences of an event widely expected to happen anyway.  Trump supporters certainly have mastered the Art of the Grift!

They even have the random all caps and everything.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Is it legal for a landlord to say "I'll double your rent if Biden wins" as opposed to saying "I'll double your rent if you vote for Biden"?

[DrScholl]

Is it legal for a landlord to say "I'll double your rent if Biden wins" as opposed to saying "I'll double your rent if you vote for Biden"?

The landlord used language that is threatening but was careful not to outright put himself in legal trouble.

[Fuzzy Bear]

This has to be illegal.

If a boss can't intimidate their employees this way ("A vote for Biden is a vote for a pay cut and layoffs!"), then there's no reason this should be allowed.

Why would it be illegal?  A "boss" and an "employer" are two different sort of relationships.

Our kids' schoolteachers, through their unions, send parents all sorts of messages about how dire things will be if they vote wrongly.  Our Doctors tell us how much more healthcare will cost if we vote wrongly.  The landlord has free speech, does he not?  Is he/she threatening tenants with eviction?

Elections have consequences.  One consequence is greater or lesser tax consequences on voters, or on specific groups of voters.  This is a cheesy appeal, but I find it hard to see how it's illegal.

[Ferguson97]

This has to be illegal.

If a boss can't intimidate their employees this way ("A vote for Biden is a vote for a pay cut and layoffs!"), then there's no reason this should be allowed.

Why would it be illegal?  A "boss" and an "employer" are two different sort of relationships.

Our kids' schoolteachers, through their unions, send parents all sorts of messages about how dire things will be if they vote wrongly.  Our Doctors tell us how much more healthcare will cost if we vote wrongly.  The landlord has free speech, does he not?  Is he/she threatening tenants with eviction?

Elections have consequences.  One consequence is greater or lesser tax consequences on voters, or on specific groups of voters.  This is a cheesy appeal, but I find it hard to see how it's illegal.

You'd be singing a different tune if this guy was saying he'd raise the rent if Trump won.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

This has to be illegal.

If a boss can't intimidate their employees this way ("A vote for Biden is a vote for a pay cut and layoffs!"), then there's no reason this should be allowed.

Why would it be illegal?  A "boss" and an "employer" are two different sort of relationships.

Our kids' schoolteachers, through their unions, send parents all sorts of messages about how dire things will be if they vote wrongly.  Our Doctors tell us how much more healthcare will cost if we vote wrongly.  The landlord has free speech, does he not?  Is he/she threatening tenants with eviction?

Elections have consequences.  One consequence is greater or lesser tax consequences on voters, or on specific groups of voters.  This is a cheesy appeal, but I find it hard to see how it's illegal.

Lots of things wrong with this post. First, unions endorse candidates all the time, but they're certainly in no position to yield threats, implied or otherwise, if an election doesn't go the way they want.

Second, I don't know what kind of doctors you've been seeing, but I've certainly never had one tell me how to vote and it would be totally unprofessional and unethical for a doctor to use their practice to shill for their preferred political candidates.

Thirdly, the way this particular landlord is behaving is pretty blatantly unprofessional (not new behavior from these kinds of folks, of course... and I just escaped an abusive landlord engaged in criminal behavior myself) and if they are using this as an implied threat, then that would be illegal. At a second glance, it looks like they're just trying to use whatever fear or intimidation tactics they can get away with. But the fact of the matter is that a person's vote cannot lawfully be tied to their employment or status as renters.

Now it is legal, of course, for the landlord to double the rent if Trump loses. But as Joe said, chances are they already anticipate that happening and are just looking for an excuse to grift from that loss in any way they can.

Which is also unethical, but then again, landlords aren't exactly the first thing to come to mind for most people when it comes to ethics, or professionalism, or basic human decency for that matter.

[Fuzzy Bear]

This has to be illegal.

If a boss can't intimidate their employees this way ("A vote for Biden is a vote for a pay cut and layoffs!"), then there's no reason this should be allowed.

Why would it be illegal?  A "boss" and an "employer" are two different sort of relationships.

Our kids' schoolteachers, through their unions, send parents all sorts of messages about how dire things will be if they vote wrongly.  Our Doctors tell us how much more healthcare will cost if we vote wrongly.  The landlord has free speech, does he not?  Is he/she threatening tenants with eviction?

Elections have consequences.  One consequence is greater or lesser tax consequences on voters, or on specific groups of voters.  This is a cheesy appeal, but I find it hard to see how it's illegal.

You'd be singing a different tune if this guy was saying he'd raise the rent if Trump won.

No, I would not.  I'm about principles.  You should try that.  Principled behavior means that, sometimes you take a position that is not in the interest of the candidates you support or the groups you are a part of.

I would never do this if I were a landlord (and I have been one), but I don't see where it's illegal. 

If he threatened to evict someone for voting or political activity, or selectively raised rents, that would be something else.