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How do I challenge a housing association rent increase?
Comments
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If I remember correctly I was lucky enough, that when I moved into my HA in the February, my rent did not increase the first April/May. They waited a year, of course they might have factored in the new rent rise from when I signed the contract. Where I live it sounds, from conversations I’ve had, that we all pay different amounts, depending when people moved in and what type of contract we all have. So even comparing between the same HA is difficult, not to mention a comparing between HA and Private rent.
Paddle No 21:wave:1 -
I think you're wise to reset your expectations of what a social housing landlord provides as standard. When I moved into my social housing flat 18.5 years ago, not only did it have no bathroom mirror, it had no flooring, needed fully redecorating (9 layers of wallpaper on the bedroom walls - luckily, it came off very easily because the paste on the layer closest to the wall was so dried out, it all came off in huge sheets like cardboard!) and had ancient, yellowed by smoke vertical blinds at the very large living room windows. What it did have, though, was a brand new kitchen, albeit a basic grade one, and a brand new bathroom suite though no shower.
Since then, the HA has replaced the kitchen, fully rewired, replaced the gas boiler, replaced the windows twice, replaced all the radiators, replaced the front doors of each flat, installed (though not fully connected yet) air source heat pumps, replaced the video security entry system, fully refurbished the communal areas at least twice and many other things too. In my case, soon after I moved in I sought and was given permission to install an over-bath shower and necessary tiling at my own expense then more recently when I'd been assessed by their Adaptations Team, the HA installed a level access shower at no cost to me. It was only in the most recent tranche of works that we had extractor fans fitted in our kitchens and bathrooms. All these works were done to ensure our homes met various legal standards and the most recent, most extensive works were funded by a grant from the European Union.
I have no complaints about the service my HA provides although I understand that not everyone will have the same experience and I know from reading this forum that some HA's are better than others.
I hope you'll settle in to your new, secure home and in time, manage to make it as comfortable as you'd wish. Some HA's and Councils have furniture rental schemes for essential items including white goods but from what I can see, they're not a cheap option. If you have a local Freecycle group or local Facebook page there are often perfectly good items offered free to anyone who can collect them so that could be an option if you have transport, or can hire a man with a van for a couple of hours.
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How can the monthly rent increase be different from the weekly rent increase?
No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?0 -
It might not be it is the OPs workings per month, as they, like me pay monthly but when the HA rent letter arrives it is per week. I had to contact my collectors and query the letter, as they told me my last monthly payment but the next payments on the letter, for two months only gave the weekly amount. I called and checked that they were going to charge the correct amount per month, not the weekly rate for those months as they had typed. They sent me a new letter with the correct monthly amount as an oversight. Seems lots of people pay weekly, so they did not update my letter to show monthly. I did not want my DD only being charged a week for the month and then claiming it back. So sorted before the change.
Paddle No 21:wave:2 -
My housing association went up by 4.8%
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That doesn't see right at all. I can't see any justification for you paying a higher rent than any of your neighbours. Have you tried to challenge your rent amount? Looks like you can request information on rent rates:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/social-tenant-access-to-information-requirements-consultation/social-tenant-access-to-information-requirements-policy-statement
Interesting that they didn't increase your rent at the first opportunity. I wasn't even given a chance to breath, and my rent was increased to the maximum amount possible.
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That's very interesting. You certainly had a difficult start there. Don't think it's right that new social housing tenants are put in those difficult circumstances.
Sincere thanks for the warm wishes. I am not having much luck so far unfortunately, as I now have a neighbour who is blasting their music for hours each day, during the day. Not sure how I am going to deal with that. I've never had a problem with noise nuisance in the decades that I rented in the private rented sector.
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Because of how a monthly rent is calculated. I calculated the increase from £780pcm to £820pcm, and it is a
5.12821% increase: https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/algebra/percentage-increase-calculator.php
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Seems they are all putting up the rent as much as they can.
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I agree that 820 is a 5.1% increase on 780. But you haven't said where the 780 and 820 figures come from?
780 plus the correct 4.8% increase would be 817.44. So, I wonder whether somebody is 'helpfully' rounding the monthly figures to the nearest £10, and thereby causing confusion.
Incidentally, your initial post mentions a 6% increase, so it's all a bit confusing.
No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?0
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