How to Retire in Honduras: Costs, Visas and More

Tela Bay in HondurasHonduras is known for it’s beautiful beaches and low cost of living. The country is home to one of the largest cities in Central America, Tegucigalpa, and plenty of quaint mountain towns and a popular island called Roatan. In recent years, Americans have flocked to this Central American oasis of some 10 million people because their retirement savings can go much farther than in the U.S. A financial advisor can help you plan your retirement abroad and help you stretch your Social Security and other retirement funds while in Honduras.

Cost of Living and Housing in Honduras

According to Numbeo, a cost-of-living database, the cost of living in Honduras is about 41% lower, overall, than in the U.S., not counting housing costs. Rent in Honduras is about 73% lower than in the U.S.

Let’s look at a specific example. One of the most popular places to retire in Honduras is Roatan. Rent on a one-bedroom apartment in Roatan’s center will cost an average of $250 per month, and a three-bedroom apartment in the same area will cost about $967 per month. In contrast, an apartment in New York City will run about $3,452 for a one-bedroom and about $6,767 for a one-bedroom in downtown Manhattan.

If you want to purchase property in Honduras, the average price per square foot is about $93.79. In the U.S., the average cost per square foot to purchase a home or apartment is $292.35.

Retire in Honduras – Visas

Americans do not need visas to visit Honduras as tourists. However, if you want to retire in Honduras, you will need to get a retirement residency card, of which there are three types. The Secretary of Justice processes these in Tegucigalpa. You will need to work with a Honduran attorney to get your residency card.

It takes up to nine months to process an application for a retirement residency card, but Americans may enter Honduras on a tourist visa and begin their application process in country. Be prepared to spend about $2,500 to complete this process.

Be sure to bring your passport, police record, a health certificate, a passport photo and any residence-related documents with you when you enter Honduras as your residency application will require them. You must also be able to prove that you have at least $1,500 of lifetime monthly income if you are applying for the retirement visa.

Retire in Honduras – Healthcare

Honduras does not have a robust public health system. The World Health Organization ranks it 131st out of 191 countries. Therefore, many retirees choose to get private healthcare insurance and live near private hospitals. People can purchase healthcare insurance in Honduras or before leaving home. There are several 24-hour hospitals in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, all popular with American expats.

Most pharmacies will offer the same prescriptions as in the U.S., especially in a tourism hotspots. It is important to note that rural healthcare is scarce in Honduras.

Retire in Honduras – Taxes

If you earn an income in Honduras, it will be taxed between 10% and 20%. If you purchase a home in Honduras and then sell it, your real estate capital gains will be taxed at 10%. Additionally, your property will be taxed each year at about 0.4% of the total property value.

Money received from the U.S., like a pension, tax-advantaged account or Social Security retirement benefits, will not be taxed as income by Honduras.

Don’t forget that as an American citizen the U.S. government will tax you on foreign-earned income.

Retire in Honduras – Safety

According to the U.S. Department of State, violent crime, such as homicide and armed robbery, is common in Honduras. Additionally, gang activity, street crime and narcotics and human trafficking are pretty widespread. In large cities such as Tegucigalpa, violent crime exists and riots or protests are expected. However, there are plenty of gated communities and large pockets of expats living in Honduras that employ security staff to maintain a safe living environment.

The Takeaway

American retirees walking along a Honduran beachHonduras is a beautiful tropical location to visit or live in. It is home to mountains, beaches and more, so there is a bit of something for everyone living in Honduras. It is important to remember personal safety in Honduras and not take unnecessary risks when traveling throughout the country, mainly because private hospitals are only available in cities and tourist hotspots.

Tips on Retiring

  • Consider talking with a financial advisor before moving abroad. Finding a financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free advisor matching tool can connect you to several financial advisors in your area. You can find the perfect financial advisor for you in as little as five minutes. If you’re ready, get started now.
  • Retiring comfortably in Honduras is entirely possible, even on Social Security retirement benefits. For some people, Social Security is even enough to provide disposable income for recreational purposes. Calculate your Social Security retirement benefit here.

Photo credit: ©iStock.com/Robert_Ford, ©iStock.com/Jodi Jacobson, ©iStock.com/dstephens

The post How to Retire in Honduras: Costs, Visas and More appeared first on SmartAsset Blog.

Source: smartasset.com

Rent Increase Laws: What Landlords Can (and Cannot) Do

rent increaseseccolo74/iStock

Rent increases are never, ever fun. Every year, I hold my breath when it’s time to renew my lease, in the hopes that the hike is still within my housing budget. Sure, it may be easier than ever to find homes for rent online, but I love where I live, and would like to stay there as long as I can.

Fortunately, my landlords have always played fair. But let’s be frank—some don’t. And when that happens, it leaves many tenants wondering: What are the rules on raising rent, anyway?

Read on for answers to the questions that keep renters up at night.

How often can landlords raise rent?

Landlords can’t just raise your rent whenever they feel like it; they have to wait until whatever contract you’ve signed with them expires, says Robert Pellegrini, president of PK Boston, a real estate and collections law firm with offices in the Greater Boston area. That means that if you have a lease, they can’t raise it until the lease term expires.

For example, if you’ve signed a one-year contract, it’ll be a year before rent can go up, or two years if you’ve signed a two-year lease (which is why signing a lease for two years or longer is wise, to keep the rent down).

Meanwhile, if you’re renting month-to-month, your rent can’t increase until the end of any given month. Simple rules. But real rules.

How much notice should renters receive of rent increases?

In most states, renters must be granted at least 30 days’ notice before a rent increase is enforced, although that can vary based on how much the rent will actually go up. In California, for instance, that advance notice expands to 60 days if the increase is more than 10% of the rent.

These rules are also typically true for a “tenant at will” (i.e., you do not have a lease) and, more surprisingly, a tenant in a rooming house, where you are likely to pay rent weekly.

“In this case, one would assume that seven days’ notice would suffice. Not the case!” says Pellegrini. “Tenants in rooming houses still require 30 days’ notice for a rent increase.”

No matter how strange your leasing terms may seem, or how unorthodox your housing situation, you may be surprised when it comes to your rights concerning rent increases.

How much can landlords legally increase what renters pay?

As unfortunate as it may be, rent increases are common, and many tenants expect some kind of increase every time their lease comes up. Still, some renters might find it hard to believe just how much the price of their housing goes up every year.

“When it comes to how much a landlord can raise rent, anything flies,” says Pellegrini. “There are no rules, and it’s totally at their discretion.” Except, of course, if you’re living in a rent-stabilized or rent-controlled apartment, in which case there are strict government provisions in place governing how much rent can be raised (or if it can be increased at all).

Finding one of these rent-controlled apartments is something like locating the holy grail. So, if you don’t know if you have a rent-controlled apartment, the chances are you do not.

If that’s the case, you, your lease, and your wallet are mostly at the mercy of your landlord and the rental market in your area. However, there are some exceptions to what your landlord can do, for example: raise the rent to punish a renter.

“If it looked to a judge like the landlord was raising rent punitively—say, for example, to get ‘payback’ for the tenant contacting the Board of Health for a health code violation—then this is not OK, and the landlord could be found guilty and made to pay as much as triple damages and court costs,” says Pellegrini.

In this case, it’s not about your rental agreement, the length of your lease, or even a housing market increase in your area. It’s about what is legal and illegal. If you think you may be a victim of a punitive rent increase, contact a lawyer.

Can a landlord raise rent retroactively?

The short answer is no. In most cases, if a landlord has slapped a tenant with a retroactive rent increase, he was negligent in letting the tenant know about the increase at the appropriate time. The renter can’t be held responsible for a rent increase he or she genuinely didn’t know about.

“Often, a landlord provides notice of the increased rent retroactively together, to try to bully renters out, knowing that the tenant might be overwhelmed due to the ‘back rent’ and would be more likely to vacate,” says Pellegrini.

If this is the case for you, be aware that a tenant can file suit against a landlord, or simply counterclaim if an eviction has already been initiated by the landlord.

What should renters do if they think their landlord illegally raised the rent?

So, now that you know a bit more about rent increases: What if you’re realizing that your rent may have been increased illegally?

Maybe your rent was increased illegally on a rent-controlled apartment. Or, perhaps you’re looking through your rental agreement and realizing that you weren’t due for an increase.

There are things you can do to protect yourself from an illegal rent increase.

“A tenant should keep track of every correspondence they receive,” says Pellegrini. “They should also take notes when communication is verbal, and keep track of the dates of each communication.” This is especially important when trying to prove harassment (to pay rent or otherwise).

But don’t assume that your landlord is automatically the bad guy.

“In my opinion, the vast majority of landlords do the right thing, and, out of the slim percentage that do not, they aren’t even aware that they did something incorrectly,” says Pellegrini.

“So, in all but a few cases, I’d highly recommend that the tenant communicate with the landlord first if something doesn’t seem right. If the tenant ends up in court, or starts things off in a threatening way, they should remember that the landlord owns the property. And, if the landlord finds the tenant to be difficult to work with, the landlord is entitled to allow the tenancy to expire and find a new tenant.”

So, you should yourself (and your money) from an unfair increase, but don’t go so far as to threaten your landlord and put your housing situation at risk. Remember that your landlord could have made an honest mistake.

It’s also possible that you could have miscalculated an increase along the way. If you come on too strong to correct the situation, you could potentially end up facing eviction.

—————

Watch: Is It Smarter to Rent or Buy?

The post Rent Increase Laws: What Landlords Can (and Cannot) Do appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

Source: realtor.com