private tenants rights

hopelesscase!

hello, very new to this, does anyone know anything about the rights of a private tenant of 6 years whose landlord wants to increase monthly rent by 20%. am i naive to think the longer we are here and are trouble-free tenants, the less likely the rent is to increase?

black-saturn

The rent will increase with the rate of inflation I'm afraid. It usually increases every year or every other year. You wouldnt expect to be paying the same rent now as in 20 years time would you?

If your on housing benefit take the letter from your landlord saying it's going up and it should be adjusted.

mdean

It depends on the type of tenancy. Most these days are Assured shorthold tenancies which put most of the power/ leverage with the landord.

CIS

20% is a large increase, if it takes the value above market rate, then Housing Benefit may not cover the complete increase.

AFAIK, If its unfair, then the rent increase can be contested and the increase possibly reduced under fair rent legislation.

Aiadi

CIS wrote:

20% is a large increase

If the landlord was increasing the rent by 20% every year then I would agree that would be a large increase, but a 20% increase after 6 years doesn't seem grossly unfair.

At the end of the day the fairness of the rent charged could only be determined by comparing the rent the OP will pay to equivalent rental properties on the market.

Savvy_Sue

Shelter are good people for housing queries. As others have said, annual increases of 20% would be OTT, but if the rent hasn't increased at all in that time then it doesn't sound so bad.

Plus, you may be wonderful tenants, but landlord may now have a different agenda and want to sell the property or something like that.

Musique

This web link contains useful info:
http://england.shelter.org.uk/advice/advice-345.cfm#wipLive-3920-2