Rent increase

Gorgeous_George

No, LAs cannot force a rise.

In your position, I'd be tempted to ask for a small reduction (£920?). You could point out that the rent is at the high end and that you have been good tenants. I assume that the rent has always paid on time.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.



GG

BoingBoing_2

My LL has just informed me that my rent will increase by £60 a month to £550 if I sign for another year in August. Been here 2 and and a half years and that will be the first increase ive had, but if I have to pay out an extra 60 quid for a 2 bed semi, I may as well start looking for a 3 bed! LL has promised a combi boiler for last 2 years and done nothing, so I've started looking for new accommodation.

Barcode

Our money-grabbing delusional landlady decided to increase the rent by £75 a MONTH back in November. We negotiated, and then promptly started to look elsewhere. The letter she sent us was a joke, saying the rise 'is in line with properties in the area' which is a lie. Our furniture is falling apart, it's horrid, cracked window, non-working gas-fire, nasty chip-board furniture etc. For a young professional, or professional couple, they can get a nice modern furnished flat for the same price.

And that's what my housemate and I have done, as a result, the LL is going to have a gap of around a month (at least) before she gets somebody else in. She won't be able to rent it out for £600 ish which is what she thinks it is worth, at least not without some substantial refurbishments.

Prior to this, the rent had increased by about £15 each year, not unreasonable, but £75 is taking the cake, and she's paid for it.

Gorgeous_George

Boing Boing and Barcode

That's how the market works. LLs set the charge and the tenant chooses whether or not to accept it. If they choose not to accept the revised price, they are free to move. The LL may have a void but (s)he may be able to accommodate that. New tenants may or may not be found at the new rent. If not, the LL will educe the rent or sell up.

There are so many laws favouring the tenant, I feel the LL should at least be able to set the rent.



GG

BoingBoing_2

I understand that GG, but I admit i'm at a loss as to why the LL has done it, i've never missed a payment, never requested any work be done on the house or garden, and at £550 a month I seriously doubt he'll find a tennant within a month! But it was his choice to raise the rent, I understand he's in this to make a profit, but he's just lost himself a great tennant. lol

franklee

Innys wrote:

Having done some research on the Rightmove website I see that most houses in the immediate area with the same number of (double) bedrooms are charging anything between £0 to £200 pw more than I am.

One small point, the other houses on Rightmove are ASKING between £0 to £200 pw more. They are not CHARGING that much more as there is usually a difference between asking rent and achieved rent, typically 5% or if a property has been empty for some time the difference can be much more. One way to gauge the difference between asking rents and achieved rents is to note how fast property is let, the longer a property takes to let the bigger the difference is likely to be. Supply and demand ...

franklee

Round here the market is very sensitive to price. Advertise a property for 800-825 pcm and it's let within days. Advertise it for 850-875 pcm and it'll be empty for months. My landlord proposed a rent increase so I said I'd leave, we ended up with my staying on a lower rent (lower than the origional rent was). Still wish I'd left though, I found somewhere better and cheaper and in a better location but inertia won out. If he tries it again I will go.

SharonWills_2

In Australia rents are being advertised at one price then the negotiations start when people turn up at the office - this issue is getting a whole lot of attention right now. Around 1% vacancy is causing some "issues" for people who need to rent and housing prices are way over the top, it's a real mess but I guess the market will eventually sort itself -

sm9ai

Innys wrote:

Bearing this in mind I'm tempted to ask for an increase of just over 5%. Is that reasonable?

How are you going to justify that increase?

Whats changed to mean that you need to charge over 5% extra?

Innys

In the last two years inflation has been 2 to 3%, or thereabouts, which comes to around 5% - hence the increase since they took the house.

Anyway, I have put the ball in their court. I have said I would like them to stay on, but there will need to be a rent rise - which they weren't surprised about. I asked them to come back to me in a week with a propoed figure and then we can negotiate.

Last year I came up with a figure, £0, and, not surprisingly, they accepted it.