advice on rent increase wanted

moomin_girl

hi all wanted to pick brains.
myself,dh,dd have been in current property which is a tiny 2 bed cottage since may 07 paying £550pcm.

since having to give up my job due to child care arrangemnts etc we applied for housing benifit to see if we were able to get SOME help towards the rent not to cover all.

sent a landlord direct form to landlord thinking they would be more receptive to been paid directly. oh was i wrong they have phoned and told me they will not sign unless we agree to a rent increase to £600pcm apparently to cover adminsitration and time they will spend on dealing with housing benifit.if we cant afford it they say we should move out.

councill need them to confirm this in writting before they will pay me directly as i have allready asked for the landlord to be paid insted. The rent office allready class it as an unfair rent by £50

as far as i can tell landlord has do this offically with a form now called 4A and cant increase the rent untill the tennacy agreement is due to be renewed.

i feel like they are blackmailing us or forcing us out.

any advice or comment would be wellcomed

ruggedtoast

Thats renting in Britain unfortunately. Its all about the landlord making money and nothing about security for the tenant.

You can refuse to pay the rent increase and continue along the terms of your tenancy. If youre on an Assured Shorthold Tenancy the landlord is bound by the agreed rent until the end of the period. If you're on a rolling monthly tenancy you can refuse the increase but you may get your two months notice through the door.

The landlord is trying it on. As he/she/it (and 'it' does apply to some landlords) now thinks they can get more money out of you due to the social paying some of your rent they are asking for more. In their sad little minds theyre doing you a favour by filling in your form so you should do them a favour by making them £50 a month better off. I assume they think you'll be paying much less rent anyway if yoiu get HB. You could call their bluff, they may just back down.

Incidentally we had something similar with a LL once. We ignored them for ages until they started to get testy then negotiated another increase on the proviso that they did some painting and decorating in the flat. If you do end up paying more you should definitely insist on something in return.

N79

I'm not condoning the landlord here but if my tenants suddenly start wanting to pay me direct with housing benefit then my costs do rise.

1. My insurance costs rise, as the buildings insurance for tenants on benefits is a lot higher (no idea why - I guess that people on benefits are more likely to burn the house down).

2. My experience of dealing with local authorities when they inevitably get the payment wrong is that they are slow and require multiple letters before getting it right. In the meantime, I am down on rent and don't feel that I should reclaim it from the tennant. (I know that legally I can, but since the fact that they are on benefits means they have little money there is no point, plus I feel that having agreed with them to accept direct payments then I should honour the agreement unless the tennants have acted in bad faith.)

3. My rent protection insurance refuses to cover tennants on benefits.

If the property rental is agreed on the basis of a non benefits tennant then I see nothing wrong with the landlord wishing to renegotiate now that the tennants circumstances have changed provided that neither side is breaking the terms of the lease. If you are still within the original lease period then the rents should not rise.

If you do agree to the rent increase then consider insisting on a new AST to give you some tenure (although you would also be bound by the term).

N79

moomin_girl

N79 wrote: »

I'm not condoning the landlord here but if my tenants suddenly start wanting to pay me direct with housing benefit then my costs do rise.

1. My insurance costs rise, as the buildings insurance for tenants on benefits is a lot higher (no idea why - I guess that people on benefits are more likely to burn the house down).

2. My experience of dealing with local authorities when they inevitably get the payment wrong is that they are slow and require multiple letters before getting it right. In the meantime, I am down on rent and don't feel that I should reclaim it from the tennant. (I know that legally I can, but since the fact that they are on benefits means they have little money there is no point, plus I feel that having agreed with them to accept direct payments then I should honour the agreement unless the tennants have acted in bad faith.)

3. My rent protection insurance refuses to cover tennants on benefits.

If the property rental is agreed on the basis of a non benefits tennant then I see nothing wrong with the landlord wishing to renegotiate now that the tennants circumstances have changed provided that neither side is breaking the terms of the lease. If you are still within the original lease period then the rents should not rise.

If you do agree to the rent increase then consider insisting on a new AST to give you some tenure (although you would also be bound by the term).

N79

Thanks for your advice N79 thats really usefull i wasnt aware of any of those points.

ruggedtoast

This may be of use too

http://www.rpts.gov.uk/our_services/rd.htm

PasturesNew

Already some Councils have been trialling the new system, where they set up a chart of how much rent they are prepared to pay out in Housing Benefit to people. This is based on two items:
1] The average rent for different properties in their area
2] How many people are living there.

From 1 April 2008 all Councils will be adopting this policy.

As somebody who is earning money you can choose to live wherever you like and pay whatever rent you wish. But when you put a claim in, Councils will look at the number of rooms you have and how much rent you are paying and look up their chart - they will then only pay you a fixed amount. It is up to the tenant to come up with the extra or move out to cheaper/smaller accommodation.

It seems to me that you might be living in such an area and as such your Council have decided your rent is too much. This might mean you are paying a higher rent for a nicer place, or it might mean your property is too large for your needs. e.g. a single person in a 2-bed flat would be deemed to be in accommodation too large for their needs.

It might be that if you had a/another child then your rent would be right for the size of your family and HB would have paid the full amount you currently pay.

I can offer no advice. Just thought I'd mention this new way of doing things that's starting to come into play.

Links - take your pick: http://www.google.co.uk/search?num=100&hl=en&safe=off&q=%22local+housing+allowance%22+.gov.uk&meta=

moomin_girl

thanks for your info on the new ways pasturesnew allthough the house is only a small 2 bed with a open plan kitchen/living room downastairs and 2 beds and a bathroom upstairs in a small rural village nothing grand by all means and the rent office allreday agree the current rent is to high without the added increase.

have checked on rent service website we have the current allowence of rooms

silvercar

two problems with the landlord receiving rent directly from the council:

a) if the council have paid HB in error or find that the tenant has wrongly claimed benefit, the council claw it back from the landlord and leave the landlord try to get the money off the tenant.

b) once a tenant has most of the rent paid by the council they have a tendancy to not pay the top up money to the agreed rent.

If you are a tenant in receipt of HB it is still your responsibility to pay your rent each month. Claim the HB you are entitled to and set the money aside to pay your landlord the agreed rent. I don't see why tenant or landlord or council should be unhappy with this.

redmel1621

Tell him you are no longer going to claim HB as you would rather not have the rent increase and you will be going back to work and have sorted out the child care situation etc etc....
Claim HB/CTB and whatever else you are entitled to have the moneys go into your Bank and pay him out of that.... He doesn't need to know anything.

I hate the Private rental market (which I am in) we have had many, many ruthless landlords just out to rip people off. My brother is going through it at the moment his landlord who swore blind she would not sell the flat he is renting (which was more like a squat) he has since painted and fitted floring etc, now guess what!!!!!! yep she has given them one month to get out as she realises the flat is now very saleable...

Mel x

speedtwin

redmel1621 wrote: »

My brother is going through it at the moment his landlord who swore blind she would not sell the flat he is renting (which was more like a squat) he has since painted and fitted floring etc, now guess what!!!!!! yep she has given them one month to get out as she realises the flat is now very saleable...

Mel x

Landlord has to give 2 months notice

ken_and_dot

I may be wrong but I was under the impression that with an AST the rent could not be increased within the first year and then limited to 10%. I'm sure I will be corrected if I'm wrong.

One other problem with HB for the landlord is that if for any reason the council overpay a claimant's entitlement then the council make their re-claim on the landlord. For that reason alone I steer clear of HB tenants.