Mid market rent advice

shiningfaery

Hi everyone,

My husband and I have just moved into a new build house which we are renting as mid market rent (in Scotland). When we went to the sales office and discussed the development with the sales agents we were told that the whole development would be primarily for sale or rent and that is how its is advertised with a handful of housing association properties.
I asked the difference between the rented and the housing association as I wanted to know what I was paying the additional rent for and was told these properties where lain out differently inside and came with none of the luxuries mines did i.e kitchen appliances, flooring and blinds.

So we have moved in and the builders are still on site and there are more properties being released as time goes on (naturally). In the section I live there are 6 3 bed properties all terrraced (1 I live in) of these 6 2 are mid market rent me and my next door neighbour, the rest are housing association. Now this in itself is not an issue for me but it seems the "luxuries" where included for them minus flooring and blinds.

This has annoyed me as it doesnt seem fair for me to be paying extra rent every month there is no difference in the houses. The rent is fixed until next tax year when it is reviewed and I signed a 6 month short assured tenancy and have been told after the 6 months it will just go onto a rolling month to month contract.

Do I have any power to negotiate the rent on review? or is it a lost cause due to my tenancy not being for a fixed period?

I like my house and would prefer not to move until we have saved enough to buy our next house plus I hate moving but do feel really cheated by the sales agent...lessons learned for future for me

CLAPTON

shiningfaery wrote: »

Hi everyone,

My husband and I have just moved into a new build house which we are renting as mid market rent (in Scotland). When we went to the sales office and discussed the development with the sales agents we were told that the whole development would be primarily for sale or rent and that is how its is advertised with a handful of housing association properties.
I asked the difference between the rented and the housing association as I wanted to know what I was paying the additional rent for and was told these properties where lain out differently inside and came with none of the luxuries mines did i.e kitchen appliances, flooring and blinds.

So we have moved in and the builders are still on site and there are more properties being released as time goes on (naturally). In the section I live there are 6 3 bed properties all terrraced (1 I live in) of these 6 2 are mid market rent me and my next door neighbour, the rest are housing association. Now this in itself is not an issue for me but it seems the "luxuries" where included for them minus flooring and blinds.

This has annoyed me as it doesnt seem fair for me to be paying extra rent every month there is no difference in the houses. The rent is fixed until next tax year when it is reviewed and I signed a 6 month short assured tenancy and have been told after the 6 months it will just go onto a rolling month to month contract.

Do I have any power to negotiate the rent on review? or is it a lost cause due to my tenancy not being for a fixed period?

I like my house and would prefer not to move until we have saved enough to buy our next house plus I hate moving but do feel really cheated by the sales agent...lessons learned for future for me

surely you chose to rent this property knowing the rent and knowing the rent of comparable local properties and knowing this was good value?

shiningfaery

CLAPTON wrote: »

surely you chose to rent this property knowing the rent and knowing the rent of comparable local properties and knowing this was good value?

I chose to rent this particular property because i needed to move and there was no other housing options open to me. We chose this particular house on basis of what the sales agent said so thought that everyone round us would be renting at the same price for the same property not me renting at a higher (£200+ monthly) than the majority of housing association houses which turn out to have almost same as me with lower rents.

If I had chosen knowing this then I wouldnt be asking but we didnt which is why I am.

CLAPTON

shiningfaery wrote: »

I chose to rent this particular property because i needed to move and there was no other housing options open to me. We chose this particular house on basis of what the sales agent said so thought that everyone round us would be renting at the same price for the same property not me renting at a higher (£200+ monthly) than the majority of housing association houses which turn out to have almost same as me with lower rents.

If I had chosen knowing this then I wouldnt be asking but we didnt which is why I am.

I don't know your particular circumstances so can only make general comments

-obviously having no other options does tend to reduce your negotiating position somewhat
-trusting what a sales person says is probably unwise
-the fact some-one pays less than you doesn't actually make you any poorer
-housing associations usually let to 'council tenants' and constitute subsidised housing so isn't really a direct comparison with your position
-you can of course ask for a reduction in rent

AdrianC

shiningfaery wrote: »

If I had chosen knowing this then I wouldnt be asking but we didnt which is why I am.

Ignore the neighbours. Did you think that YOUR rent was the right figure for YOUR property?

You say you had no other options... What about the housing association? Could you have rented from them?

shiningfaery

Yes I realise trusting the sales agent was not wise, I have learned from this mistake.

I have tried for a while to get a property from a housing association but for reasons I will not go into I have not been lucky to so had no choice but to go private.

For the house I am living in and what I have in comparison to where I was then Yes I am happy to pay this rent.

But please understand I am not saying I dont want to pay this rent I just feel that for instance if I buy a !!!!!!!" that if someone else then comes along to buy a similar !!!!!!!" that it should be priced the same. wouldnt everyone?

I was just wondering if rent negotiation was possible outwith a fixed term rental agreement and after you had already moved in.

AdrianC

shiningfaery wrote: »

I have tried for a while to get a property from a housing association but for reasons I will not go into I have not been lucky

There y'go. The HA rent is not available to anybody and everybody. It's not available to you. The reasons are irrelevant. You don't qualify for that price.

For the house I am living in and what I have in comparison to where I was then Yes I am happy to pay this rent.

There y'go. You're happy that your rent is a fair value for what you're getting.

But please understand I am not saying I dont want to pay this rent

Umm, yes. You are. If you weren't, then you wouldn't care whether you might be paying less or not.

I just feel that for instance if I buy a !!!!!!!" that if someone else then comes along to buy a similar !!!!!!!" that it should be priced the same. wouldnt everyone?

Then you must go through life perpetually unhappy, because sure as eggs is eggs, somebody will be paying less, somewhere, for some reason. Maybe it's a price that isn't available to you for whatever reason - as is the case here...

I was just wondering if rent negotiation was possible outwith a fixed term rental agreement and after you had already moved in.

"outwith"...?

Once your current tenancy is coming up for renewal, then of course you can negotiate. But - right now - you've signed (presumably) for a specific period. You can't say "But I want to pay less" during that period any more than the landlord can say "But I want you to pay more".

If you're on a train or plane and find the person in the seat next to you paid less for their ticket, do you find the guard or stewardess and ask about a partial refund?