Cummings Properties is a commercial real estate company in the Boston, MA area. They are a very big local commercial real estate company. Several years ago, I needed to rent commercial real estate for my small business so I thought of Cummings Properties.

Overall the office space is totally fine so I signed a multiple year lease with Cummings Properties. Last year 2008/2009 I received an increase in rent from them as a "standard of living increase". This is total BS if I ever heard it. When I asked the property manager at Cummings Properties, they said that is the way it is (and is in the lease) and we are increasing rent for everyone. How could you increase rent for EVERY small business by 10% during a recession? I was very upset.

Today, I was notified by Cummings Properties that our rent will be increasing again for 2010 by 14% for another "standard of living increase". This is ridiculous and I do not know what to do. I own a small business and can not afford to have my rent increase every year until my lease is completed.

I will continue to share my negative increasing rent experience about Cummings Properties with everyone I know as I do not think it is right to increase a small business rent every year, even in a tough economy that we are in. If I increased pricing to my customers I would loose business for sure.

Anyway, I wanted to share my horrible experience with Cummings Properties and not recommend any small business to rent any office space from them.