ask for rent decrease?

Gorgeous_George

That sounds like negotiation and I like negotiation.

Go to the table forearmed with information. Prices of similiar/better but cheaper properties. Point out that the prices quoted are ASKING prices and may not be achieved. If you would like £50 off the rent, have a bottom line of £25 but ask for £75. Plenty of room to manoeuvre.

Good luck and smile when you ask. Smiling gets results.

GG

Darth_Marty

I dont think id bother given you have said you are happy with the rent, the rent seems to be more than fair and the risk is that even if he agrees to this reduction he will be keen to slap rises on in the future whereas now he seems to be happy with things as they are.

the_ash_and_the_oak

I wouldn't ask for a decrease. I would negotiate over an increase for sure, but I would never ask for decrease. Even though I think in many sectors rents are decreasing.

Also I think decreases don't manifest themselves this way. I think rent decreases are the same as salary decreases. They don't occur in your current house/job, your house/jobs comes to an end, and you find there are cheaper places, (and that your next job isn't quite so well paying as the last one, if you can find one).

I prefer the unrocked boat

housesitter

I thought about re-negotiation come April, but having looked at rightmove and with property bee I find that agents are putting the rent up!! Even on houses (not after a flat) which have been empty for months.

I take this one of two ways:

1) They are looking for more revenue now that no one is buying.

2) They are giving a buffer for people knocking the price down.

Certainly the demand isn't there, these are places which have been empty for average of 4 months.

Again, looking at rightmove, my rent is probably correct. But the previous tennant diddled the owner, I've been here 18 months without issue (other than with the agent), so expect that if they are reasonable I should be able to get some discount for another 12 month contract.

Question is, what the agent says to their client. I have a feeling the owner doesn't get involved at all with decisions.

IveSeenTheLight

thriftymanc wrote: »

They keep saying 'oh mortgages are going down so your landlord won't be paying as much now'.

do you really think rents are set this way?
No, the local rental rate is set by supply and demand.
Simplictically, if there is more supply than demand, rents would come down, if there is more demand than supply, rents go up.

Lets look at your logic, rates have dropped from 5.5% to 2%, so you think possibly a 3.5% rent reduction is due.
did the LL increase the rent as the rates went up?
What about LL's with fixed rate mortgages?
how would you feel as a tenant getting a letter every month saying "Your new rent for this month is £XXX" extra hassle for you to adjust the payments

think about it from a monetary sense as well.
your rent is say £800 and there is a 0.25% reduction, lowering the rent to £798. the following month there is a 0.25% rise increasing the rent back to £800.

Naturally, the 3.5% recent drops would reduce that to £772 saving you £28 per month. Interesting you say, but lets look at the possibility that the interest rate could increase to 12% increasing the monthly rate by £77.20

Also how would this affect AST's. You'd sign a contract on a variable rent rate?

A non starter to be honest.

WTF?_2

It would all depend on my relationship with the LL. If they had been decent in the past, I wouldn't be into stirring things up with a rent decrease request.

On the other hand, if they had messed me about and the rent really was out of whack with the market then I'd have no problems putting it to them and walking out for a new place if the market rate was lower and I didn't get a reduction..


If you do want to pay less rent but stay in the same place one way to go about it might be to explore the option of a longer tenancy period. Then a rent reduction is perfectly reasonable so you can put the facts and figures about the going rate on the table and see what you can do from there.

GrammarGirl

Before I moved into my property in July, the rent was advertised at £1,000 PCM (shared between three). We negotiated with our LL via our letting agency and in return for a guaranteed 11 month tenancy (previously we could've left at any time with 1 month's notice) it was lowered to £900 PCM. If you can do this kind of negotiation (a lower rent in exchange for your continued tenancy) you may be able to agree on a lower rate. Otherwise (for e.g., if you're not willing to stay for a set amount of time) I would leave it, because it sounds as if you've got a good deal already!

Kenny4315

As GG correctly pointed out BTL rates have still remained pretty high, as I said on a previous thread you now need 30% stake to get a decent rate and even that's still at best around 5.5%, plus a big fee. In other words many of the Type 1 (chancers) are going to be leaving the building shortly. Or are having to cross subsidise with other income.

Its all gloom and doom for BTLers unless you have a tracker for the life of the mortgage with no collar and no penalty tie ins, and have over a 50% equity stake.

HappyMJ

Good luck - Rents in my area up going UP and it's reflected in the Local Authority's payment of LHA. It's gone up 10%. Look around there's too many people moving into rentals at the moment. They are scared (for some reason) of buying so are renting instead pushing up demand therefore pushing up rents.

Still no harm in trying though. If you are a good tenant then why not.

IveSeenTheLight

Kenny4315 wrote: »

Its all gloom and doom for BTLers unless you have a tracker for the life of the mortgage with no collar and no penalty tie ins, and have over a 50% equity stake.

I think you a hoping this is true, but then again, reality may proove different to your hopes and dreams