My son's girlfriend needed to move and apartments are *really* pricey here.
She found a basement apartment and the Landlord asked for $1400/month rent.
However, there was a weird storm and some
water got in and damaged a bit of the flooring, so he said he'd reduce the rent to $1200.
However, when he got the floor fixed, he said, "you're just one person, I'll leave the rent at $1200 unless you get a room-mate.
So she got a temporary roommate and he put the rent up, but then the roommate left so he put the rent back down again "because of covid".
Then her mom was coming from India to stay for a year. Her Mom was to arrive a couple of days before Christmas. She went to the Landlord and asked if he'd like a little extra for Dec and said that she'd start paying the higher rent for January. The Landlord said, "But your mom's retired you said, and she won't be working. No, your rent can just stay at $1200.
Yes - people are basically kind. In this market, he could easily charge the higher rate and could have been doing so for most of the last year and a half. But he's a really nice fellow, and he seems happy to "
be nice" rather than get every cent he could.