Is my landlord ripping me off?

Martynb_

I know my landlord is not good at maths and neither am I, but it has really bamboozled me. He has made errors before so I cannot tell whether he is fooling me or not.

I pay £77 per week, per calendar month, which adds up to £308 per month. But looking at my rent book, he is adding money to this amount by £28 each month and says that's because I pay every month for 13 months.

This has confused me. I should only be paying £77x4=£308 whether it is 13 months or 12 months has no bearing on the monthly amount.

What's worse is that we have a deal. I take out the bins for the tenants each week and he lets me pay £12 less per month as a thankyou.

Where is he getting the higher calculation from? My calculation is £308 per calendar month- his is £336 per calendar month. Makes no sense to me.

ffacoffipawb

Martynb_ wrote: »

I know my landlord is not good at maths and neither am I, but it has really bamboozled me. He has made errors before so I cannot tell whether he is fooling me or not.

I pay £77 per week, per calendar month, which adds up to £308 per month. But looking at my rent book, he is adding money to this amount by £28 each month and says that's because I pay every month for 13 months.

This has confused me. I should only be paying £77x4=£308 whether it is 13 months or 12 months has no bearing on the monthly amount.

What's worse is that we have a deal. I take out the bins for the tenants each week and he lets me pay £12 less per month as a thankyou.

Where is he getting the higher calculation from? My calculation is £308 per calendar month- his is £336 per calendar month. Makes no sense to me.

£77 per week x 52 (weeks in year) / 12 (months in year) = £333.67 per month

Close to his figure of £336.

Martynb_

ffacoffipawb wrote: »

£77 per week x 52 (weeks in year) / 12 (months in year) = £333.67 per month

Close to his figure of £336.

Thanks. That is right.

Caz3121

in your sum you say £77 per week is £308 per month which means you have assumed every month is 4 weeks = 28 days.
If you make payments every 4 weeks you would need to make 13 payments
If you make payments monthly it would be 12 payments but the amount paid each month would be higher than the 4-weekly amount

just_trying

Hi, your monthly amount is approximately £334.18.

Had this before, if you look at a calender I was told some months have 5 weeks, plus it's not 52 weeks as we're told at school. Sorry if I've complicated matters trying to help you understand. It's times by 52.3 or something like that. Trying to help.
Edit sorry another sum I done, the way my landlord works it out if someone is paying weekly is £335.59. Basically 77×52.3÷12.

lemontart

the way you work out a calendar month amout is as follows

weekly amount 77 x number of weeks in a year 52 = 4,004 then divide that by 12 = 333.67.

your landlord is charging you as you state 308 plus 28 - 336.00 per calendar month .

cheap rent these days

Housing_Benefit_Officer

This old chestnut. £77 per week isn't £308 per calender month. £308 per lunar month yes but calender month no. 1 week contains 7 days so 4 x 7 = 28 days only. Your landlord would lose 4 weeks and 1 days money if you only paid £308 per month if your rent was £77 per week.

Exactly what does your tenancy agreement say? Is your rent £77 per week?

There will always be slight discrepancies trying to calculate weekly rent figures into a monthly figure because there are either 365 or 366 days in the year and 7 days x 52 weeks only equals 364.

Looks like he is rounding things to the nearest £1 so possibly overcharging by £1.41 per month.

Easiest solution would be for your landlord to change your rent figure from weekly to monthly or to accept 4 x £77 every 4 weeks so 13 payments per year.

Xbigman

There is another point to consider. The landlord may in fact be working this out the other way around. IE He knows the monthly rent is £336 and has worked out the weekly equivalent as £77 and a few pennies, so quoted £77.



Darren

Former_MSE_Andrea

Hi, we have a section in our Renting Tips guide that might help.

Andrea

PasturesNew

As the others have said:

£77/week is £308 for four weeks.
A month is (usually) longer than four weeks.

A year has 52 weeks. If you divide 52 by four-weeks then you get 13 payments due.

£77 per week = £4004 per year.
That's £333.67/month

Effectively, on 1st of the month you give him £308.
On the 28th of the month he says to you "out now, you've only paid me for four weeks"
And you say "Ah, yes, I see the problem" and give him an additional £25.67 each month to stay that extra bit.

Now - depending on how he did the precise maths, the above figures will waver about a bit, which is where your £28 comes from.

So, in short:
You pay him £77 x 4 = £308 to stay for four weeks.
Then you pay him £28 to stay the remainder of the month.

If you were paying him £308 every four weeks then one month in the year you'd discover that you had to pay him £308 twice.

cheesetoast

Martynb_ wrote: »

I pay £77 per week, per calendar month, which adds up to £308 per month. /// I take out the bins for the tenants each week and he lets me pay £12 less per month as a thankyou.
My calculation is £308 per calendar month- his is £336 per calendar month.

So, £77 per week, is £11 per day. There are 366 days in this year, because it's a leap year,, so it's £4026 a year. (That's £11 times 366).

Divide that by 12 calendar months, and you've got £335.50 a month to pay.

Minus the £12 a month he lets you off for doing the bins, and you should be paying £323.50 per calendar month this year.

A non-leap year will be one day shorter, so you'll be paying £11 a year less, making the annual payment £4015, which works out at £334.58 per month, minus the £12 for bins, meaning next year you should pay £322.58 per calendar month.