It’s month’s end. Your apartment is quasi-packed. And you don’t know whether to smile or chain yourself to the door out of migrational protest. In other words, it’s moving day.
They say change is good. But it’s hard to find a silver lining when your brother-lord (brother/landlord) forces you to find a new place to live — especially when you have to deploy a new credit card just to pay the security deposit.
Here’s one upside: Yesterday, Rhino announced a $21m Series A that will help fund the insurtech startup’s goal of reimbursing the billions of rent dollars that are buried in cash security deposits.
3x more than the monthly rent? Now that’s comedy
As of now, landlords typically demand one month’s rent to cover any damage done to the rental during the lease — that’s on top of the first and, sometimes, last month’s rent.
Federal regulations force the money into an account that can’t gain interest, resulting in billions of dollars being removed from the economy.
Rhino, which creates and sells insurance policy plans for landlords in partnership with other carriers, wants to reduce today’s soul-swindling security deposit to a miniscule monthly insurance policy (as low as $3). The startup has reportedly saved renters around $60m alone in 2019.
Rhino worldwide
According to Fast Company, San Francisco tenants may have to hack up as much as an extra $7.2k for a one-bedroom security deposit — on top of the typical $3.6k a month in rent.
Even in Boise, ID — the burgeoning city where I live, which refuses to raise its decade-old minimum wage of $7.25, even as the housing market pops off like a bottle of Brut — it’s tough to shell out an additional $850 on top of 2 months’ “cheap” rent.
Rhino is reportedly working with policymakers on both sides of the coin to create new renter-friendly laws as well — hopefully at least one geared toward the interest of brother/landlords. Something like, “Thou shalt not kick brother out of home.”
