rent reduction.....possible or not?

angelcakes_smw

I was just wondering if anyone has successfully managed to get a rent reduction from their landlord? how did you go about it? we moved here in 2009 and the rent has stayed the same (which is good as it could have gone up I suppose). the thing is it's a 2 bed house in a not so great area and there are three beds in better areas (not too far from here though) and in better condition for the same price! really we need a three bed as we've had another baby but we like it here as we know the neighbours and we've spent money on a new carpet as the old one was rotten and the landlord wouldnt change it. How likely am I to get a rent reduction if I ask? how do I go about asking?

Gwhiz

If you really need a 3-bed why not give notice and move to a 3-bed?

gingertips

agree with Gwhiz - why not just move to a better suited house..if your current LL was too tight to pay for rotten carpets then I doubt you will have much luck with reduction PLUS what happens if something does go wrong/needs replacing in the future? Are you going to have to pay again for other things?

You only live once & for the same money, why not have a better quality of life for you and your family!

angelcakes_smw

we're both students which has made things difficult for us, all letting agents have said we have no chance of getting a house through them without a guarantor and we havent been able to find a private landlord with a suitable house who will accept us without a guarantor either. We dont have anyone who is able to be guarantor, the only people in the financial position to do so have been turned down because of the hours they work (not enough) or their age. I have argued the toss with everyone about this, surely if they have the funds and are willing that is good enough but apparently not. It's not even like we cant afford to pay the rent (we wouldnt go for a house out of our price range, it would just be nice to save a little money somewhere) it just appears on paper as if we have no 'official income'. *sigh*

princeofpounds

I have. The crisis helped a bit, but I got a 5% cut.

I just asked briefly with some rational reasons, mostly relating to the fact that alternative rentals were falling in price and whilst I didn't want to move I would have to consider it.

The thing is that you have to be prepared for them to say no, or even to say no and get out if they are irrationally emotional (as accidental landlords are wont to be).

maninthestreet

Stop having babies - you can't afford any more.

ilovecheese

In a previous property I rented, I thought we were paying over market rent, so I printed off details of 11 one bed properties in the area that were on the market for less than we were paying, our LL took them away to look at them and then said "no I am not reducing the rent"

We recently moved to a 2 bed place, as we are not paying much more for this than the 1 bed place we had.

Our old LL has now lost some really good tenants, but that was her choice.

You can alwasy approach your LL with details of other properties that are less rent than you are paying, however, by doing this you may inadvertently alert your LL that he forgot to increase your rent!!

Tough choice!

Best of luck with what ever you decide to do!