Negotiating a rent reduction before renewing the contract (or moving out)

RAS

It doesn't quite work like that.

There's nothing to stop you just moving to a rolling contract. All you do is stay, and write back to the LL and EA advising that you want a rolling contract.

Nothing you can do to stop them issuing a S21 either, but it'll be months before they can take any action even if the LL decides to risk the void. 

Not however the way to get a rent reduction. Might however be useful if you want time to look for cheaper accommodation as industries start to open up, hopefully this summer. Just make sure you've read your contract properly so you know how much notice you need to give.

theoretica

The agent asks if you would like to renew, you say that going onto a rolling contract would suit you better - they may bluster, but you go onto a rolling contract.

ChewyyBacca

I have got my LL to agree to rent reduction. I had a similar dilemma to you. I will share my story and hope it helps you.
I was very reluctant to go house hunting when the infection numbers were high. However, I did see some houses in case LL wouldn't agree to reduce the rent. And pandemic situation worsened, so had to halt the search. But by then I had already issued an extremely thinly veiled threat to leave if rent reduction is not agreed. Now i wanted to stay but I stood my ground.
I reasoned out that comparable flats are going at a discount than what I was paying for past couple of years. Also I pointed out inconvenience to the landlady if she were to look for another tenant as reliable as me (no missed or delayed payment ever, always collecting her occasional mails and handing her over diligently, no complains ever from anyone in the building, very accommodating and polite- some of these were pointed out in the communication). I forwarded the available flat inventory in the 1/4th mile area (very comparable/superior flats) and that many were available even after 1.5 months of posting on rightmove. I did mention the void period for the next tenancy wouldn't make much financial sense for her.
After a couple of conversations, LL agreed to rent reduction provided I sign a new contract for another 12 months. I guess my points made an impact and she wanted to insure her future rental payments at least for the next 12 months. I re negotiated that too, and got a break clause added in, in case I needed to move out.
If the bluff didnt work, I was ready to bite my tongue and continue at the existing rent for a couple of months while searching for the better house.
Coming back to you: You cant have everything - rent reduction and the same flat. Its a negotiation, one of you will win. you should be ready to let go of the flat, in case you don't OR pay increased rent for the same flat.

steampowered

Absolutely ask for a rent reduction. Elephant & Castle is sub-prime central London, exactly the kind of area you would expect to have the biggest rent reductions in the current situation. 

A quick google suggests that rents have dropped by around 15% in central London boroughs, so I would start with that, and be willing to settle for a 5% or 10% reduction. You can dress it up as saying that you are just asking for a rent reduction in line with the local market.

The landlord is going to struggle to find other tenants, so while they will object, ultimately they will probably agree some sort of reduction.

Crashy_Time

steampowered said:

Absolutely ask for a rent reduction. Elephant & Castle is sub-prime central London, exactly the kind of area you would expect to have the biggest rent reductions in the current situation. 

A quick google suggests that rents have dropped by around 15% in central London boroughs, so I would start with that, and be willing to settle for a 5% or 10% reduction. You can dress it up as saying that you are just asking for a rent reduction in line with the local market.

The landlord is going to struggle to find other tenants, so while they will object, ultimately they will probably agree some sort of reduction.

Excellent news for genuine hard striving money savers.

arte

An update on what I posted 2 weeks ago. First of all thanks for the many useful suggestions you sent, I need once again your help to understand how to proceed now.
The landlords have finally replied to the email we sent asking for a rent reduction. Unfortunately though they have redirect our request to the estate agent they use and the reply we got from them was of course not positive.
The agent replied saying that our rent is in line with the current market and slightly below the average rent of similar property they have rented in this building since the covid pandemic first effected the UK in March 2020. They also said what we pay here has only been increased by 2% over the nearly 4 years the tenancy has been ongoing, which is true although that was agreed by the landlords because happy with us and we were happy to extend. We feel that the agent shouldn't use this term of comparison specially for the past year, as the rental market and the whole planet have been hugely shaken by the pandemic.
There are also similar properties for rent on the market at a similar asking price or less than ours, so even what they said it's of course not a real picture of the situation. If they really rented any similar properties for a higher price, then they are really really lucky.

There is another point that we haven't discussed with them yet as we were just hoping to get a positive response and some flexibility for the financial situation many of us are in, without getting dragged in a never ending exchange of emails. There are some problems in the flat (this is a 5yrs old property that should not even have these issues), we have reported them several times to the landlords, they sent a few people to check them but they were never fixed. A window in one of the 2 bedroom has been defective for over 2 years, we can't open it without forcing it. One of the window in the living room has also been broken for a year now, stuck in one position and we can't open it, while the other one doesn't close properly and we had to put sellotape to block the cold draft. The heating in one of the 2 bedrooms never worked since we moved here. The flush in both toilets already broke twice causing leaking that were fixed but not even in a rush.

We want to try one more time to ask for a reduction, mainly to save the hassle of moving at the moment. Do you think we have some good points in our favour? What should we do next?

AdrianC

What we think, what the market at large thinks... all irrelevant.
You've asked. They've said no.
You have a choice. Continue as you are, or prepare to move.

Crashy_Time

arte said:

An update on what I posted 2 weeks ago. First of all thanks for the many useful suggestions you sent, I need once again your help to understand how to proceed now.
The landlords have finally replied to the email we sent asking for a rent reduction. Unfortunately though they have redirect our request to the estate agent they use and the reply we got from them was of course not positive.
The agent replied saying that our rent is in line with the current market and slightly below the average rent of similar property they have rented in this building since the covid pandemic first effected the UK in March 2020. They also said what we pay here has only been increased by 2% over the nearly 4 years the tenancy has been ongoing, which is true although that was agreed by the landlords because happy with us and we were happy to extend. We feel that the agent shouldn't use this term of comparison specially for the past year, as the rental market and the whole planet have been hugely shaken by the pandemic.
There are also similar properties for rent on the market at a similar asking price or less than ours, so even what they said it's of course not a real picture of the situation. If they really rented any similar properties for a higher price, then they are really really lucky.

There is another point that we haven't discussed with them yet as we were just hoping to get a positive response and some flexibility for the financial situation many of us are in, without getting dragged in a never ending exchange of emails. There are some problems in the flat (this is a 5yrs old property that should not even have these issues), we have reported them several times to the landlords, they sent a few people to check them but they were never fixed. A window in one of the 2 bedroom has been defective for over 2 years, we can't open it without forcing it. One of the window in the living room has also been broken for a year now, stuck in one position and we can't open it, while the other one doesn't close properly and we had to put sellotape to block the cold draft. The heating in one of the 2 bedrooms never worked since we moved here. The flush in both toilets already broke twice causing leaking that were fixed but not even in a rush.

We want to try one more time to ask for a reduction, mainly to save the hassle of moving at the moment. Do you think we have some good points in our favour? What should we do next?

What does PropertyLog say for your general postcode?

numbercruncher8

I agree with Adrian.
 
The only real leverage you have is moving out - if the landlord can see he may be on the end of a void he may well agree to the request. But if they know you can't afford to go anywhere else this pretty much renders it useless.

Comparing things to the whole market is not really that relevant.... a block of flats can have its own supply/demand dynamics especially in London. For instance I know a block of flats whose properties get snapped up in weeks of being on the market.... asking for a 15% decrease on these because some other places in London has decreased just makes you look like a bit of an idiot.

The points about the various defects are pretty frivolous tbh, and not the fault of the landlord. although it is their responsibility to fix. If you have had no heating for 2 years in a bedroom why have you waited years to bring it up? Assuming its underfloor heating it should be pretty straightforward to fix.

Of course there should not be minor things in new properties but IMO actually lists of defects is actually fairly common in new builds, these being buildings being constructed for profits rather than for people to live in themselves.

I would think whinging about the problems now puts you in a weaker position going forward. 

arte

numbercruncher8 said:

I agree with Adrian.
 
The only real leverage you have is moving out - if the landlord can see he may be on the end of a void he may well agree to the request. But if they know you can't afford to go anywhere else this pretty much renders it useless.

Comparing things to the whole market is not really that relevant.... a block of flats can have its own supply/demand dynamics especially in London. For instance I know a block of flats whose properties get snapped up in weeks of being on the market.... asking for a 15% decrease on these because some other places in London has decreased just makes you look like a bit of an idiot.

The points about the various defects are pretty frivolous tbh, and not the fault of the landlord. although it is their responsibility to fix. If you have had no heating for 2 years in a bedroom why have you waited years to bring it up? Assuming its underfloor heating it should be pretty straightforward to fix.

Of course there should not be minor things in new properties but IMO actually lists of defects is actually fairly common in new builds, these being buildings being constructed for profits rather than for people to live in themselves.

I would think whinging about the problems now puts you in a weaker position going forward. 

Absolutely, I agree, it's not our desire to bring those problems up if we can avoid that. We were never really interested in getting into that kind of stress. The landlords are aware of all the issues I listed, we have reported to them more than once before but in the end were not fixed. The flats I mentioned as a comparison for the rent are in the same building. 

I know, ultimately it's the landlords' choice and if it's a no we just need to accept it.
I was though trying to understand if it's still worth to make another attempt mentioning this stuff and how, but I see what you mean.

Thanks for the advice!