Is there a limit to how much a landlord can increase rent?

Richard1212

The O/P's sister has benefited from a low rent for years and , yes, the landlord has every right to increase now to a level which is still below the regional average ( or above it if he wants to ).

It is this sudden massive rise all in one "go" that makes the whole thing sour. A good landlord would  always try to make increases, if they are necessary, in gentle incremental stages. This landlord has poor "PR" skills and no sense of what a rise of this size can mean, especially at a time like this. But then we don't know the landlord's position/reasons. 

Try saying it is unreasonable after so many years to suddenly land your sister with such a burden during a rough financial period and ask for lower rises over the next few years instead of this current massive rise. It is worth a try. Do you have a rent review clause and has the landlord followed its contents ? He might back down and agree a more "humane" rise gradually over the next few years.  It's really worth a try because no landlord is keen on serving a Section 13 notice, believe me.

kimplus8

I understand the ll may have reason for this increase and is in their right to do so but at 50% in one hit is unreasonable. 

Under certain circumstances like having children etc and genuinely can’t afford the rent now, she is within her right to approach her local authority and show the rent is now unaffordable. They would then have a duty to see if she is eligible for extra rent support or to apply for the council/ local authority housing register. 

GDB2222

I would ask on the benefit forum how sis can get her UC increased to cover the extra rent. If UC covers the increased rent, I don’t see why she would care?

sourpuss2021

The difficulty is that the landlord may conclude the relationship with the existing tenant cannot be salvaged after he makes such a large rent increase.  Yet he feels the increase is necessary to bring it up to market levels.

So he may decide it is easier to just give notice to the tenant and then re-let the property.

I’m not sure how the tenant should behave in this circumstances to prevent that from happening.  Maybe accepting it with a forced smile really is the best option!

lookstraightahead

sourpuss2021 said:

The difficulty is that the landlord may conclude the relationship with the existing tenant cannot be salvaged after he makes such a large rent increase.  Yet he feels the increase is necessary to bring it up to market levels.

So he may decide it is easier to just give notice to the tenant and then re-let the property.

I’m not sure how the tenant should behave in this circumstances to prevent that from happening.  Maybe accepting it with a forced smile really is the best option!

Although the risk is pretty high for the landlord as a tenant can refuse to vacate and could be there for at least a year.

a tenant shouldn't feel 'threatened' by this. A landlord cannot and does not hold all the cards. It's the tenants home. 

The landlord should have increased slowly (and thus professionally) rather than dropping this bombshell.

MobileSaver

lookstraightahead said:

sourpuss2021 said:

The difficulty is that the landlord may conclude the relationship with the existing tenant cannot be salvaged after he makes such a large rent increase.  Yet he feels the increase is necessary to bring it up to market levels.

So he may decide it is easier to just give notice to the tenant and then re-let the property.

Although the risk is pretty high for the landlord as a tenant can refuse to vacate and could be there for at least a year.

I'm guessing that was a typo as it would be exceptional for an S21 eviction to take longer than a year; even the anti-landlord Shelter charity advises that 7 to 8 months is the norm in the current climate.

During the eviction process the rent still has to be paid of course so I'm not sure what "risk is pretty high" you are referring to?

lookstraightahead said:

The landlord should have increased slowly (and thus professionally) rather than dropping this bombshell.

Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

As you say, the obvious solution (and the one I'll be reminding/prompting all my landlord friends to action moving forward) is to increase the rent every single year without fail by just a few percent; it will be small enough that tenants won't want the hassle/cost of moving, increase profits for landlords and eradicate the faux outrage at landlords charging market rates. Win:win for everyone.

sourpuss2021

COVID has a lot to answer for here.  I suspect a lot of landlords didn’t put the rent up during 2020 and 2021, being grateful if they still had tenants in place.

Then demand (and inflation) soared in 2022 and suddenly they realised they could be charging maybe even 20%+ more rent.  At the same time all their costs have increased too.

It would take a particularly prescient landlord to have gone for smaller increases during the pandemic years, so now unfortunately many tenants now face an unwelcome jolt of a large deferred increase.

diystarter7

Hi
The bottom line, if a t is not happy with the rise and its within the scope of their T&C's, they should hand in their notice as pleanty of other places to rent I guess. 

A good LL would not want to lose a good T but most LL's want market rates and covid hit many LL's very hard were they were not being paid rent etc and could not evict during covid period

20% in one go is not great but generally there is no law again that.

Some good LL's very kind ones dont raise rents every year but with inflation rampant if those are having to raise and catch up and 20% is rare but more a case of easy 8/10%.

The poster that cited "2/3%" not sure what part of the uk that is and they have not responded.

Thanks

_Penny_Dreadful

diystarter7 said:

Hi
The bottom line, if a t is not happy with the rise and its within the scope of their T&C's, they should hand in their notice as pleanty of other places to rent I guess. 

A good LL would not want to lose a good T but most LL's want market rates and covid hit many LL's very hard were they were not being paid rent etc and could not evict during covid period

20% in one go is not great but generally there is no law again that.

Some good LL's very kind ones dont raise rents every year but with inflation rampant if those are having to raise and catch up and 20% is rare but more a case of easy 8/10%.

The poster that cited "2/3%" not sure what part of the uk that is and they have not responded.

Thanks

@LegallyLandlord was talking about annual increases of 2% to 3% each year instead of keeping the rent the same for years and then doing one massive increase in a single year. I agree with that approach, small regular annual increases, which are more palatable to tenants because there will come a time when the landlord has to increase the rent. 

grumiofoundation

diystarter7 said:

Hi
The bottom line, if a t is not happy with the rise and its within the scope of their T&C's, they should hand in their notice as pleanty of other places to rent I guess. 

A good LL would not want to lose a good T but most LL's want market rates and covid hit many LL's very hard were they were not being paid rent etc and could not evict during covid period

20% in one go is not great but generally there is no law again that.

Some good LL's very kind ones dont raise rents every year but with inflation rampant if those are having to raise and catch up and 20% is rare but more a case of easy 8/10%.

The poster that cited "2/3%" not sure what part of the uk that is and they have not responded.

Thanks

£600 -> £900 is a 50% increase.