Oh great. Here's my rant for this very wonderful day:

The owner of my apartment passed away, and some lawyer bought it as an investement target instead. Well, he was introduced to me as "a reasonable" guy and someone you could easily negotiate with. But as if! If I don't agree to 40% raise in the rent I'll be booted out in a few months of time (I don't think the apartment is nowhere near the worth the rent I am paying for it now, it's the worst shithole I've seen in the city actually). Of course the law over here states that only 15% annual raises are allowed, but that's not going to stop him. See, if you're a lawyer you can always fight it in court against a student who cannot afford one. Splendid, up yours mate... sorry, just needed to start a ranting thread. If murdering wasn't illegal I'd probably commit such an act right now.

This just once more confirms the sad fact that the most money in today's societies is to be made on walks of life that are in direct control of other people's living conditions. And by "conditions", I mean literal conditions, not just amount of luxury one is able to obtain. People like that just cash on on other people's most urgent needs (such as shelter, health). What kind of people aspire to be in such positions?

lawyers can be a greedy bunch.

contact your local landlord-tenant union. they may be able to help you and there aren't legal fees

ps: sorry about your misfortune

Cheers, thanks a lot. I know I could contact someone, but seriously I don't have the time and energy. I better just put it in finding a new place for myself instead. You can't fight people like that, they'll always find ways to uppercut you. I've experienced it before, and I'm never going to do it again.

No advice but I hope you manage to sort this out, Novabreaker. I agree with your sentiments - I was in a similar (almost) situation a few years ago.

Even if you did win your case, would you trust this man again?? I wouldn't.
Hopefully you'll be able to find somewhere nicer, and cheaper, elsewhere.

Good luck.

You can pick up a new hutch pretty cheap these days.

curiious - what city are u in ...?

I feel your pain Nova, my landlord increased the rent on my last flat, which I really loved, without warning by quite a bit, and I had to leave. No advice there, but the moral of the story is that after a couple of months at my Mums - which really sucked - I found a new flat which is cheaper than that last one was to begin with and so, so much nicer.

Have faith

Thanks for the support everybody. I live in Helsinki(Finland), where it's generally not cheap to live alone. Bordering nearly on impossible if you're a fulltime student.

Actually I did a recalculation of the raise, and it's actually over 60% Everything about this case smells fishy. I'm just pondering over whether he can sue me if I say something like "ROT IN HELL YOU FUCKING CUNT" after I have finally handed out the keys to the apartment to him.

I'm really scared about the "having move back to moms" -part though.

If you could stand the legal 15% I'm wondering how you'd do representing yourself in court

Either way it SUCKS to have to deal with - I hate when other people's assholery becomes your problem