How much to raise rent?

m1ntie

RecoveringAlcoholic wrote: »

If my LL tried to be greedy I would stop paying my rent and move out one day before the bailiffs arrived.

Yes, but the OP has decent reasonable tenants!

RecoveringAlcoholic

I have never actually met my LL, but I pay his rent on time and look after his property.

neas

My 6 month term is up in a month or too.. if the landlord/letting agent suggested a 10% rise i'd tell them where to shove it... lol. I'm a good tenant keep the house clean and tidy and not a nuisance to others.... i pay every month so what I would do is:

I'd negotaite a 12 month fixed term at the current rent levels as the loss they make when its empty will negate the gains they make. Otherwise I would look for another place to live... this is a little overpriced as it is. I wouldn't normally expect to be asked to rise rent until i've been here 1 year and even then a 3-5% would be acceptable anymore is taking the mick... and i would negotiate for 0% for a year with me here or i would leave.

PasturesNew

10% would be out of the reach of a lot of renters.

People with mortgages will scrimp to pay their mortgage because it's theirs and they've got a lot of time/money/effort invested in it. There is no incentive for a renter to scrimp and do without for a rental property.

There's usually another property cheaper/better around. And if they've been wondering whether to move, this would be the decider.

poppysarah

Do you need to increase the rent?
Will the property suffer if you don't put up the rent?
Is the property at risk without a big rise?

Your lack of rent increase last year has meant you need to look at a bigger increase this year?

Without asking the tenant what % increase would have them move you're doing guess work.

Average rents on similar local properties - what's your competition.

JonnyBravo

I'm a LL too. Keeping a good tenant is worth far more than your 10% IMHO. I've had a great tenant the last few years and as a result she gets under the market rent by about 10%. The last three increases have been only 1.5%.

Work out how long you'd need to rent out the property at the new rent to make up for one month's void at the old rent. It often comes to the best part of a year and of course you might then be moving in a [STRIKE]dodgy[/STRIKE] sorry, less reliable tenant!

Of course all this changes if you're currently subsidising the rent/can't afford to keep the place etc etc

silvercar

The mistake (and I made the same mistake) is not increasing the rent after year 1. Had you done so then the increase this year would be smaller in percentage terms and the tenant would almost expect a small increase.

Only you can judge if your tenant would leave and you risk a void, but 10% sounds steep.

Bungarm2001

To be honest, 10% doesn't sound unreasonable...to the LL BUT it is to the tenant...

What we do is tell each tenant at the initial meeting that we usually review the rent at the end of 12 months, and at that time will be the possibility of a raise, but we also point out that we are always open to negotiation.

Sometimes, depending on circumstances, we don't raise for 24 months, but again, we always mention the possibility a few months before the contract ends.

At least giving the tenant notice this way takes away the element of surprise and gives them a chance to negotiate with us, move on or accept the raise. We've never put the rent up more that around 4-5% in any one go. Anymore than that would be grossly unfair in my opinion.

Toto

I agree with the others. I've been in this house for almost 2 years so just going into year 3. We've laways paid the rent on time and don't bother the LL for small repairs, we just get on with it, so as a result she has only been called on twice in the 2 years for electrical related stuff that we shouldn't do ourselves.

My LL didn't raise the rent last year and to be honest if she asked for another 10% this year we would seriously think about moving on. We've been on the fence anyway, but quite like it here (even though the house is too small for our growing needs).

pickles110564

RecoveringAlcoholic wrote: »

If my LL tried to be greedy I would stop paying my rent and move out one day before the bailiffs arrived.

I would then wait a couple of months and send the boys round to get the money you owed.