he is owed rent if the renter chooses to live there.

Why is we owed rent? And for the record, I'm talking the surplus rent after the maintenance and whatnot has been taken out, as that's presumably coming out of the property management firm's part of the cheque.

Do you choose not to pay for necessities in life? What bills do you pay each month? Are you raging against the machine so hard?

My utility companies provide actual goods and services; Be it water, electricity, or maintenance of the internet infrastructure. And as such I pay them for that.

And yes, a landlord provides many services. Most notably the tenant buys-out of a lot of risks.

The problem is that the sum of the rental payment covers quite a bit more than merely the services provided and risks bought out.