rent strike

plural rent strikes

1. A form of social or economic protest in which tenants who rent housing, commercial space, or other property act as a group to refuse to pay their rent until the landlord makes demanded improvements to the property or to the terms of the rental contracts.

   Detroit Union Plans Rent Strike if Apartment Owners Get 5 Percent Increases.

   1942 July 11, "Protest Government Rent Control," Ludington Daily News (Michigan, USA), p. 1 (sub-headline) (retrieved 1 Nov 2011)

   2 more examples

   A rent strike for the last year by tenants of the Ansonia Hotel, at Broadway and 73d Street, was settled. . . . Tenants complained about incoveniences arising from the new owners' attempts to renovate.

   1981 February 19, “The City: Rent Strike Settled At Ansonia Hotel”, in New York Times, retrieved 01 Nov 2011

   Angry publicans are planning a rent strike against landlords Punch Taverns and Enterprise Inns after last week's Office of Fair Trading ruling that the beer tie between tenants and pub companies was not anti-competitive.

   2009 October 24, Sarah Bridge, “Publicans threaten beer tie rent strike”, in ThisIsMoney.co.uk, retrieved 01 Nov 2011