Rent increase and good tenants

silverchair

westlondonbuyer wrote: »

Please phone and don't email your tenants with this news. Even if it's a small increase and still good value, it's still not nice news for anyone to receive and breaking it gently and humanely will make it easier to keep things pleasant.

Say your mortgage arrangements are going to change in January (or whenever - as long as it's at least a couple of months' warning) and you'll need to increase the rent but will still be keeping it under market rates. Ask them to do a bit research on comparative rents in the area, and you'll do the same, with the aim of comparing notes in a week.

Once they've had a chance to look round at what's available, they should come back to you and you can agree a figure you're both happy with. Don't forget they're benefiting from not having to pay agency fees or moving costs too.

To be honest I would probably prefer this info emailed to me so it would give me a bit of time to look over it & make a decision. If I wanted to discuss it further I could phone my landlady. I would have also been able to look at the email in my own time when Im not rushed off my feet rather than have a phonecall like that while Im in the supermarket or something.

If its increased by a small amount, the tenents may not want the hassle of moving. However, if it was me I would begrudgingly pay the extra & may not wash the carpets midterm & just do it at the end or something like that.

tbs624

If you have good Ts in place then think about it carefully - that 25 quid per month rent rise, when they have only been in place a year, may well trigger a correlating request for all manner of small repairs to be dealt with.

Alternatively, if they decided to go ( which they might do for other reasons combined with any rent rise you put their way) they don't have to permit viewings and you could end up with at least a couple of weeks void, plus potentially less reliable Ts. Is that worth 400 quid gross to you?

Some experienced LLs forgo year on year "just because" rent rises when there is a "good" T in situ

ET1976

tbs624 wrote: »

Some experienced LLs forgo year on year "just because" rent rises when there is a "good" T in situ

I always have done in the past (have never yet put rent up), but I don't think I've been so far under market rent before (£250 pcm in 2 cases on the same street).

Anyway I think on balance it's probably not worth it.

I'd want the tenants to ask me to do whatever small or large repairs need doing anyway, regardless of whether the rent goes up or down. Much rather keep on top of the maintenance than find a load of things waiting for me when they move out.