Negotations with the landlord

Yesterday, Soeren (my flatmate) got a phone call from our landlord. "Shit, he wants to raise the rent by 100Eur per month (50 each)" says Soeren. So we invited him over for a round of negotiations on our turf...Studio 56 (this is what we call our flat).

Before we get into the details, lets state a few facts. The rent that we pay for our flat is great; smaller apartments in our building go for 300 EUR per month more. We haven't had a rent raise in 2 years even though apartment and rental prices have risen significantly during this time. Finally, our landlord is a shrewd business man (owns 30-40 apartments in the city).

We had a couple hours to prepare before his arrival so Soeren and I came up with a game plan. Our opening position would be that we were happy with the current situation (paying low rent) and that we did not want any change. This would give us a good starting point as we knew he would come in with the opposite goal - to raise the rent. Next the plan was to concede on the rent raise but in return to get lots of cool stuff for our apartment in return.

Arguments were in the following order (LL- is landlord)-
LL - I want to raise the rent by 100 per month as it is already low and i have not raised it in 2 years. This is just to cover inflation.
SB - We don't want to raise the rent we are happy like this.
SB - We know our rent is good. But at the same time when we compare our flat to our friends who have similar flats their flats are better furnished.
SB - We are good tenents, never cause problems, keep the place clean and fix things ourselves and never bother you.
SB - Look at that shit TV in the corner, it's not even a TV. And this couch, it has a hole in it and it's not leather.
LL - TV is not good for you and the couch is fine.
SB - We like watching sports on TV and the couch has a hole...people can fall through and sue us.
LL - But the couch is made of wood
SB - That's not an argument.
SB - We want a new TV, leather couches and the rent increase will not start for another two months.
LL - Ok, we can delay the rent increase but i can only do the TV or the couch.
SB - We want both. Look, at 100EUR extra per month, that's 1200EUR extra per year. We can find a TV and couch for half of that.
LL - OK we have a deal.

That's how it went. Anyway, that evening Soeren and I picked out a 32" LCD TV for 630EUR which he prompty purchased for us. Now we just need to find a leather couch set....will probably be another 600 or so.

So all in all...we are pretty happy. We still have a good deal on the rent and Studio 56 is pimpin.