Sometimes humanizing a landlord really helps. 

if anyone over reaches it tips the tables and it now ends up being good for no one... the specifics of something like this is just stuff but the mindset of how we aught to be as a human is what really matters.... either way you are serving a customer and if you don't add to that person more value than you took in price then to will never be trusted.

So, in your way of thinking, there is no room for kindness and humanity in business? 

I was told by a fair housing agent for all purposes it is considered a human in the eyes of the law.

Most people are set in their ways if you raised the rent to only $1800 they would never pay it but would gladly pay it to a new landlord, it's just human nature

And I was Gen X (as you can tell by my dated references) and these were Baby Boomers, raised to be absolutely certain that they were the most important generation in the history of civilization, certain that we were nothing but human garbage.Since that time, I've put a few pushy boomers in their places when I felt they deserved it.

You can be firm while still being fair and humane.

This is still a human business and managing humans through relationships works.

Sometimes landlords forget that tenants are humans. 

Try it without lawyers first and treat each other as human beings.