Can I request my landlord to reduce the rent?

csrivats999

Hello all,
I live in east london and on the day I moved into this flat last May,the letting agent went bust telling me telling me the landlord will manage the let going forward

The 12 month lease ran out 4 months back and I still have'nt received anything from the landlord expect an email saying he will come and inspect the property.
I still continue to pay him the original rent.

Now,given that the rental prices have dropped - can I request him to reduce the rent on the flat as I pay quite a big sum as it were.?
Has anyone done this ?
Please help.

Gwhiz

csrivats999 wrote: »

Hello all,
I live in east london and on the day I moved into this flat last May,the letting agent went bust telling me telling me the landlord will manage the let going forward

The 12 month lease ran out 4 months back and I still have'nt received anything from the landlord expect an email saying he will come and inspect the property.
I still continue to pay him the original rent.

Now,given that the rental prices have dropped - can I request him to reduce the rent on the flat as I pay quite a big sum as it were.?
Has anyone done this ?
Please help.

Everything is negotiable. If you have examples of other property lets proving yours is now overly expensive use that to negotiate. I did that recently and managed to get a 20% reduction.

theartfullodger

can I request him to reduce the rent on the flat

Yes: You can also ask him to dance the Can-Can in a tutu on Blackpool pier, or alternatively ask him to donate all his worldly goods to Battersea Dog's 'ome.

He can decline all three requests. He can decide you're too much bother and issue with a notice to quit, followed up with the usually legal stuff.

Time to chose what to do: Do you play poker??

Cheers!

Lodger

giruzz

Gwhiz wrote: »

Everything is negotiable. If you have examples of other property lets proving yours is now overly expensive use that to negotiate. I did that recently and managed to get a 20% reduction.

Hi,

I live in east London too and I've asked a reduction to the landlord about a month ago...after 4 weeks he came back with 'we plan to sell the house so get ready to go out'...which was said just to scare me.

I've said fine...and I'm looking around. So far we pay 750 pm for a shoebox size loft....right now you can find good size 1 bed or even 2bed for that amount...so...goodbye and goodluck to sell the loft I'm in for 175k (I know the price because before I moved in the landlord tried to sell my loft and another 4 appts in the building I'm in)

giruzz

Jowo_2

I'm a bit confused as to how a 12 month tenancy raised last May expired 4 months ago. However, by the sounds of it, you now have a periodic tenancy which automatically happens when a fixed term contract expires and no new contract is signed. This carries on under the existing terms and conditions until the tenant gives one months notice or the landlord gives the tenant 2 months notice to end it, timed with when rent is due. You will find the Shelter website very helpful on what a periodic tenancy is and how to end it.

Yes, any tenant can negotiate rent with the landlord. If you don't like the insecurity of a being a periodic tenant then you can also request a new AST for a 6 month or 12 month period, the latter with or without a 6 month breakclause if you wish, at the same time you want to discuss the rent.

The landlord doesn't have to grant either request so you should do your research on market rent and be prepared to move out if the landlord doesn't want to compromise. A landlord that is aware of the changing market will probably want to retain a current tenant than experience a void trying to find a new one.

Debbie1980

Hi

We started renting our flat last July, it was a 6 month contract and since the 6 months is obviously long since up, we continue to pay the same original rent.

As rental prices have dropped, I checked out the rental charges for places being advertised in our etate. It was very interesting, especially coupled with Property Bee as I could also see how long the properties had been on for and what changes there had been - eg drop in rental charge, and also reductions in fees.

As we were due a rental inspection last week I printed off details of 3 properties in our estate. All 3 are larger properties, offering the same by way of furnishings as we currently have in our rented flat (it's a new build estate so all have fitted kitchens). The 3 properties had the same rental charge at 10% lower than what we are paying. I left these property details along with a polite letter basically pointing out the lower rent charge for these properties in this area (we can see from our windows they are that close!) that these are larger properties, that we have been excellent tenants this past year (rent paid timely, flat kept ingood condition etc) and that due to current market values we believe we are overpaying on rent and request a the same charge as these 3 properties. The agency has contacted the landlord wiht this request and I am going to ring them tomorrow to discuss - I have no idea what they said.

My personal opinion is that if you don't ask you don't get - i know rental charges have dropped, the landlord knows they have dropped yet I doubt he is going to come to me to offer a reduction so it is down to me to ask. I also believe they would rather that we stayed here paying a slightly lower rent than we leave the property and potentially it is vacant for a few months so they have 0 income from it(going by what I've seen of other rental properties in the area this is likely).

Ladybird20

Its totally up to you. I have a trendy fully furnished appartment ina super area.A couple came and veiwed it , liked it and said they would be in touch.The following day they made an offer of 75.00 less per month so i refused.The next day a company let rang me to veiw so i made an appointment with her to show her round.The letting agent rang me hours before i was meeting the second veiwer to tell me the first couple was in the office and ready to sign for full amount.I said out of curtesy i am going to show the 2nd veiwer round first , and i said this just to stall them.My first choice is the company let as they are usually single people away from home and go back home at weekends, so less wear and tear on my property. I showed the company let around and she wanted it,and has signed for 12mths...so in this case being cheeky with asking for reductions didnt work and the first tenants would have been kicking themselves for not accepting the full rental money in the first place.....hope this is of some help ...L.B 20

jadex

Ladybird20 wrote: »

Its totally up to you. I have a trendy fully furnished appartment ina super area.A couple came and veiwed it , liked it and said they would be in touch.The following day they made an offer of 75.00 less per month so i refused.The next day a company let rang me to veiw so i made an appointment with her to show her round.The letting agent rang me hours before i was meeting the second veiwer to tell me the first couple was in the office and ready to sign for full amount.I said out of curtesy i am going to show the 2nd veiwer round first , and i said this just to stall them.My first choice is the company let as they are usually single people away from home and go back home at weekends, so less wear and tear on my property. I showed the company let around and she wanted it,and has signed for 12mths...so in this case being cheeky with asking for reductions didnt work and the first tenants would have been kicking themselves for not accepting the full rental money in the first place.....hope this is of some help ...L.B 20

That's IMO different scenario as they were negotiating the asking price.
The OP is saying about reducing rent while you are actually living in there.

In my area rents went down by cca £100 in the last 12 months and there are plenty empty properties around. Many people I know took the opportunity to switch from 2-beds to 3-beds or to better ones (nice furnished, better equipped, dedicated car space or garage, pets allowed, internet, flat biggish screen in lounge, cleaning service, etc.) or just in better location for them (closer to tube, etc.).
I have asked myself for reduction and got just a little.
I could move out as the going rate is £50 lower than I will be paying for, but as I am going to buy next year, that saving £50 x 12 = £600 would just offset moving costs, so decided to accept the offer.

One note: my LL is very concious what and how much he is paying for. He is a BIG moneysaver. He is happy to use petrol station on the left side of the road which charges fraction of penny less than the one on the right side and he was expecting the prices to be reduced on the basis of crude prices. He expects to pay less for groceries. He pays less for his electricity and gas than a year ago. He has just secured the deal with his mobile provider to pay less for double minutes. And he is happy to pay lower mortgage for his new house and was saying to me many times about that f...ing banks which don't pass lower rates.
And I am sure he knows very well rents are in decline.
Yet, when I asked him about reducing, he looked at me as I was from Mars.
Cheeky?

cattie

jadex wrote: »

.

One note: my LL is very concious what and how much he is paying for. He is a BIG moneysaver. He is happy to use petrol station on the left side of the road which charges fraction of penny less than the one on the right side and he was expecting the prices to be reduced on the basis of crude prices. He expects to pay less for groceries. He pays less for his electricity and gas than a year ago. He has just secured the deal with his mobile provider to pay less for double minutes. And he is happy to pay lower mortgage for his new house and was saying to me many times about that f...ing banks which don't pass lower rates.
And I am sure he knows very well rents are in decline.
Yet, when I asked him about reducing, he looked at me as I was from Mars.
Cheeky?

Not cheeky, he's just a first class moneysaver. There's nothing wrong in wanting to save as many pennies as possible on your spending, & trying to maximize as much as you can on your income.

He sounds the kind of guy who works hard to shop around to ensure he is getting best value for money & on MSE we can't complain about that. In fact we applaud it. :T