Advice on rise in rent

barnaby-bear

car25 wrote:

Our landlord has just put our rent up by 25% which seems an excessive jump, however this is the first rise in 5 years. So although this is probably fair if it had risen annually, are they able to do this large rise in one hit?

25% after 5 years is the same as the rent increasing by 4.5% each year, if that helps - compound interest.

Edit: as in your rent now would be at same level - of course by rising in one big jump it's cheaper than 4.5% rises over last 5 years...

mystic_trev

Tassotti wrote:

I don't think it will be too long before all LLs do this and create a new rental market level...And why not..I say

Everything else increases each year...why not rents?

Probably biased opinion here

Tass

Time to raise the rents?

barnaby-bear

Tassotti wrote:

In my opinion, inflation

But what type?

CPI
RPI
HPI
BofE base
Correlated to fuel/Council tax
Wage inflation

???

BobProperty

babe_ruth wrote:

anyone know what an acceptable % rent rise per year is ?

In line with M3? :eek:

:beer: if you get my point.

csarina

Tassotti wrote:

It does seem to be a large increase, but bear in mind, the 5 years when there hasn't been an increase.

Maybe the LL's fixed term mortgageccame to an end and, what with the recent rate rises, has to do this to make the property financially viable.

I don't think it will be too long before all LLs do this and create a new rental market level...And why not..I say

Everything else increases each year...why not rents?

Probably biased opinion here

Tass

We are in the same situation the LL has indicated that our rent will rise by £125 this summer, we are on a fixed income and our pensions do not go up by this amount, if we stay in the house he will force us into bankcrupcy because we just cannot afford this hike in the rent......we moved in 2 years ago, no rise last year but a hike from £350 to £475 a month I don't think so. We really do not have much of an alternative unless he gives us notice to quilt, the waiting list for sheltered housing which is what we will be offerred is 2 years plus................what makes it worse is that the LL is my OH's son!!

barnaby-bear

csarina wrote:

We are in the same situation the LL has indicated that our rent will rise by £125 this summer, we are on a fixed income and our pensions do not go up by this amount, if we stay in the house he will force us into bankcrupcy because we just cannot afford this hike in the rent......we moved in 2 years ago, no rise last year but a hike from £350 to £475 a month I don't think so. We really do not have much of an alternative unless he gives us notice to quilt, the waiting list for sheltered housing which is what we will be offerred is 2 years plus................what makes it worse is that the LL is my OH's son!!

If you are genuinely hard up and have no savings/assets, housing benefit will covre the rent, contact your local housing office.

csarina

barnaby-bear wrote:

If you are genuinely hard up and have no savings/assets, housing benefit will covre the rent, contact your local housing office.

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No they won't we live in a two bedroomed house, the council deem that we should only have one bedroom,they deduct this from the benefit. We also have a works related pension each we therefore are just a couple of pounds above the threshold for pension credit, our savings amount to just about £1000 which is our holiday fund, car tax and insurance fund and emergency fund. To go on holiday I sell stuff on ebay so we get a week away out of season..............

At present the housing benefit represents just over half our rent if it goes up it will still only cover the same amount and we will have to find a bif chunk more if we want to stay where we are with the prospect of the rent rising by 12.5% each year, pensions rising at the rate of inflation means we would be in very queer street very quickly.

Voyager2002

csarina wrote:

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No they won't we live in a two bedroomed house, the council deem that we should only have one bedroom,they deduct this from the benefit. We also have a works related pension each we therefore are just a couple of pounds above the threshold for pension credit, our savings amount to just about £1000 which is our holiday fund, car tax and insurance fund and emergency fund. To go on holiday I sell stuff on ebay so we get a week away out of season..............

At present the housing benefit represents just over half our rent if it goes up it will still only cover the same amount and we will have to find a bif chunk more if we want to stay where we are with the prospect of the rent rising by 12.5% each year, pensions rising at the rate of inflation means we would be in very queer street very quickly.

It is still worth checking to see how much extra Housing Benefit you would get with the new rent. And could you not buy something you need to reduce your savings below the relevant threshold?

I must say, less than five hundred pounds for a two-bedroomed house sounds llike a very low rent. What would you have to pay for the kind of one-bedroomed place that the Council say you should move to? If such a place would cost more, then you should certainly appeal against the reduction in your benefit levels.

prudryden

Ummm? Seems stranger than fiction.

littlesaint

Tassotti wrote:

I don't think it will be too long before all LLs do this and create a new rental market level...And why not..I say

Everything else increases each year...why not rents?

Tass

Well, in my experience of renting in London, very few landlords will freeze the rent for years on end. I've rented about seven houses and rent has only been frozen for one after a year. At best, I've only had increases a fiver or less. At worst it's been £15pp for all three tenants (so £45 altogether).

In most cases, rents are too high in London. A lot of landlords invest in unecessary cosmetic updates so they can charge more and then forget to provide a vacuum cleaner for a furnished property. There is no need for a new rental market level in London anyway.

And not everything goes up, my company have just imposed a pay freeze on all staff - we're not even getting a cost of living rise, so that's effectively a pay cut with rises in utilities and council tax.