Rent increase... Advice wanted

leighavfc

Hi all

Me, my partner and 2 children have rented a property for just shy of 8 years now. Rent always paid on time, we look after the property like it's our own etc.

Landlord is fine, never had any issues with him in all the time we have been here, if there's any problems he sorts them out without any hassle.. sometimes a little slow to react but regardless they are sorted. He hasn't even visited the property in all the time we have been here, apart from to drop us a bottle of wine off the once for creating some space in the garage for him to put some belongings!

We have started to outgrow the property and over past 3 months had been looking at bigger properties to rent whilst trying to save to buy our own place. As we quickly found out, every property to rent is either very quickly snapped up or has lots of other people competing for it. We decided that we would stay where we are and move out when we had the money to buy. The location is perfect for us for many reasons and is also in a nice area.

Around 5 weeks ago the Landlord sent us a message via WhatsApp to say due to the current climate he was going to have to put the rent up. In all fairness we have never had an increase in the past and probably had expected to do so at some point. He told us that the rent would be going up from £650 per month to £795 per month. It was a massive hit on our finances, along with all the other increases we are facing everywhere else. To give a bit of context there have been several properties on the road which have been newly rented with rents of £900 plus, he stated this in his message and also said that due to us being good tenants etc that he would give us a reduced rate. 

After sitting down and discussing with my partner we decided that there wasn't much else we could do other than accept the increase. We agreed to it... without really doing any research into what was right or wrong etc... yes I know this was a silly move. He initially said that it would be starting with October's rent payment... After checking the calendar that was just a week later.. I went back to him and said could we move this to November's payment as we had not budgeted for the increase that month. He agreed and said he would get everything sorted and ready for us in time for November's payment, meaning getting a new tenancy agreement written up etc.

Since then various people have told us we shouldn't have agreed to it for various reasons, and whilst we agree with all of those we don't really have much choice as we have nowhere else to go and can't be 100% we could get anywhere else in the right time etc.

Now as we speak, there is just over a week left until the rent is due, we haven't heard off the landlord since and haven't seen any new tenancy agreement to read or sign. So my questions would be:

1. What would be a reasonable amount of time before the next rent is due for the landlord to get the new agreement to us, a little time to read through and check over and then sign and get back to him before the next rental payment?

2. Do I give the landlord a reminder about it? Part of me thinks I should as to not cause any problems, part of me thinks it's not my problem to get It sorted as that's his job and his responsibility.

3. If he doesn't get it over to us before the next payment is due or give us very little time to make sure we are happy with it etc then do we just pay our current payment of £650?

4. Is there any suggestions you have to add to our situation?

Apologies for the long post, I like to give context to the situation so you all get the full picture. 

Thanks

dimbo61

Sorry to say this but the BOE base rate has gone from 0.1% to 2.25 and it looks like another 0.75% in November 

leighavfc

dimbo61 said:

Sorry to say this but the BOE base rate has gone from 0.1% to 2.25 and it looks like another 0.75% in November 

Hi @dimbo61

Thanks for your reply

Yeah I understand that and is part of the reason why we have decided to just accept the increase. There is no question of why he is increasing it to be honest, like I say we haven't had an increase before and with everything going up its understandable the landlord doing the same also with rent now.

It's not ideal, but we can afford the increase. luckily I've had a pay rise this month and my partner is actually about to change job which will see her salary almost double too. Fortunately for us all of that has really softened the blow of the rent going up around 22%

lesalanos

He hasn't followed the correct procedures with increasing the rent in that there isn't a signed written record of the agreement so you have a few choices, most of which risk antagonising the landlord which then may lead to them increasing the rent to market value or issuing a S21 notice . 

Feel free to refuse, to wait for an official document or sign to confirm or just pay the increased rent from next week. 

billy2shots

No rent increase in 8 years.
Fixed issues you raise. 
You guys have looked after the place like it was your own. 

Sounds like you have been good for each other. 

Don't look at it as a 22% increase this year, see it as 22% over years. 

It seems like the increase will not be a financial issues for you with favourable changing circumstances. 

Pay up or move on imo. You have seen first hand how cutthroat it is out there. 

leighavfc

lesalanos said:

He hasn't followed the correct procedures with increasing the rent in that there isn't a signed written record of the agreement so you have a few choices, most of which risk antagonising the landlord which then may lead to them increasing the rent to market value or issuing a S21 notice . 

Feel free to refuse, to wait for an official document or sign to confirm or just pay the increased rent from next week. 

Thank you for your reply.

Yeah totally agreed, it's been good in both ways and we have no problem with him as landlord and the way we have been treated. For the time being at the very least we are happy to continue with the increased rent. Ultimately in the next year or so we want to buy our own place anyway if we can make that happen. 

We don't want to antagonize him of course and would like the relationship to continue as it has been.

My question to your reply would be.. would you pay the proposed increased rent on the next due date without anything official been seen or received etc? To keep him happy so to speak? Or what would you do in this situation?

leighavfc

billy2shots said:

No rent increase in 8 years.
Fixed issues you raise. 
You guys have looked after the place like it was your own. 

Sounds like you have been good for each other. 

Don't look at it as a 22% increase this year, see it as 22% over years. 

It seems like the increase will not be a financial issues for you with favourable changing circumstances. 

Pay up or move on imo. You have seen first hand how cutthroat it is out there. 

Thanks for your reply

Again totally agree with all you have said, it's a good relationship without any problems. We obviously don't want to cause any going forward either. Happy to pay the increase, especially now as circumstances have changed since then. It would have been tight otherwise but just about affordable.

We agree with you in the sense we need to pay up or move on, and that's what we intend to do as our other options are far more risky and far more hassle.

My main question is, without seeing or signing a new tenancy agreement yet and the presumption that we won't before the next rent due, would you pay the verbally agreed increased rent in good faith to keep the good relationship?

Brie

Whilst I agree that going from £650 a month to £795 must be a bit of a shock it doesn't seem to be a massive increase if you consider there's been no increase in 8 years.  

a quick calculation suggests that this is equivalent to about 5% a year - I don't know how much that differs to what other renters experience.  I know that salaries haven't been increasing by that much generally so maybe it is excessive. 

But the bigger thing is that since you haven't had annual increases of 5% and are just now jumping up quite a bit you have actually saved nearly £8k since you moved in.  

dimbo61

With the tax changes over the past 6 years, more legislation around renting 
IE EPC " C " being talked about.
EICR
GSC
Right to rent

Deposits

Fit for Habitation
Decent homes standards

We are now seeing more Landlords sell up and invest elsewhere while the Government and Councils have failed miserably in building more Decent homes for the huge number of people wanting and needing to rent in the UK.
Serco is looking for 6,000 homes for Asylum seekers to get them out of expensive hotels !
People fleeing the War in the Ukrainian are looking to rent a home rather than live in other people's homes 
Cost of living crisis
Now a housing crisis 

leighavfc

Brie said:

Whilst I agree that going from £650 a month to £795 must be a bit of a shock it doesn't seem to be a massive increase if you consider there's been no increase in 8 years.  

a quick calculation suggests that this is equivalent to about 5% a year - I don't know how much that differs to what other renters experience.  I know that salaries haven't been increasing by that much generally so maybe it is excessive. 

But the bigger thing is that since you haven't had annual increases of 5% and are just now jumping up quite a bit you have actually saved nearly £8k since you moved in.  

Yeah was a shock initially of course. When all things are considered then over the 8 years we have been here and no increase in that time it's probably equivalent to a fair annual increase. I think the maximum they are allowed is 10% per year, or at least that is what I am told.

Like I have said in previous posts him increasing it and by how much is not so much a problem, especially now our circumstances have changed. 

My real question is: When would be an acceptable amount of time to recieve new agreement, read and sign before next rent is due?

And lest say we don't see that document before then what would people do, would they pay the current rent and then argue that technically that's what is due, or would people pay the verbally agreed rent in good faith?

tiger_eyes

leighavfc said:

My main question is, without seeing or signing a new tenancy agreement yet and the presumption that we won't before the next rent due, would you pay the verbally agreed increased rent in good faith to keep the good relationship?

Yes. Honouring your verbal agreement shows your good faith and reliability. Remind him of the need for a new written agreement, but pay him anyway.