I was living in Brooklyn for three months when I found out my then-partner and I were paying more rent than everyone else in our building. At first, I rationalized it was because our lease had started in September, which is peak rental season.

However, after asking my friendly neighbors a few more questions, I discovered their rent — for a similar one-bedroom apartment — was $100 lower for a good reason. The backyard and the basement, which was supposed to house laundry facilities and bike storage, weren’t accessible because of a delay in construction. We weren’t able to use those amenities either, yet we were paying as if we were.

Read the rest.