Great ‘How to haggle down rent’ Hunt

mmoore wrote: »

I'm not sure that trimming plants is the Landlords responsibility!

You'll be wanting the washing up done next....:D

As a landlord I'll agree with that one!!! I'd say permission granted - chop away!!!

Also as a landlord I am considering increasing rent to my tenants. Services charges on lease hold flats have increased significantly and some of my mortgages are on fixed rates so am getting no benefits of the decrease. The mortgages that I have with Northern Rock and a Bradford and Bingley subsidiary I could move to get a lower rate, but there is no financial benefit as the arrangement fees are extreme!!!

However on rents I would, and have given reduced rates to new tenants who either pay in advance and/or sign longer contracts! It's better for me to have £50 a month less for 12 months than to have an empty house in 6 months time! & then have to pay another letting fee when I do find a tennant!!!

mariella wrote: »

I have managed to haggle my rent down by £20 a mth when i moved in before the recession. However, this seems to have increased my problems!
Rather than saving money i have been asked to move out as the landlord wants to get more money per month! Im tired of paying the fees that letting agents charge,and moving costs, this is the second time its happened now and i will be out of pocket again because i have a greedy landlord who wants to charge £800 a month for a two bed flat thats not worth that. What worries me is that i chose a letting agent because i wanted to feel more secure in a longterm let and the agents cant do anything to help. Also the prices in Bournemouth are going up not down! The landlords seem to charge whatever they want and people migrating here (my new neighbours) are quite happy to pay such high rent

There are over 1000 2 bedroom flats in Bournemouth, for £800 and less, looking for tenants, on just the rightmove site. PropertyBee is showing that asking rents are dropping fast on these properties. The cheapest 2 bedroom flat on rightmove has an asking price of£595pm and has just dropped from £695.

Just taking properties in that area at random, this 2 bedroom flat started with an asking rent of £1,000pm and has now dropped to an asking price of £795pm and the landlord still hasn't got a tenant. PropertyBee showing that the landlord has been looking for a tenant for 7 months.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-10459023.html?

This one advertised as having "fantastic sea views" at an asking price of £595pm
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-20511688.html?

You can get 3 bedroom houses for less than £800pm in Bournemouth!

stphnstevey wrote: »

This is a VERY one sided thread and I can't believe Martin endorses it in his weekly email.

I am fine with moneysaving when only a multi million dollar company loses a few pounds, but landlords are only human and many are just as close to the brink as anyone else in this recession. Many people haven't been able to sell, so have turned to renting.

This thread just stinks of robbing one moneysaver to benefit another and in a recession as well !, when some might be on the edge Martin has very kindly encouraged others to push them over the cliff.

I am disgusted at Martin. :mad:

I'm reading these comments by landlords, that they don't like Martin helping Tenents reduce their rent.

Well, This is Money Saving Expert website. It is about ways of saving money, getting things cheaper. He often says on the radio, that in doing so he doesn't usually take quality of service into account - its not his remit. In the same way finding ways of maximising profit for Landlords is not in his re-mit either. Being a Landlord is a business, you are trying to make profits, be it from rents or from equity increases, and Martin is not in the job of telling businesses how to increase profits.

So of course it is one-sided.

This seems to be the problem with all these new Buy-to-let landlords (nb just because it is a buy-to-let mortgage, does not give the tenent any greater security if the property is repossessed, still only a weeks notice if your lucky!), they are entirely selfish, and its all about them and their situation and their money. They forget that for a tenent, his/her property is their home, and they usually don't want to be forced into moving or put on the streets anymore than anyone else. Having this threat about rent increases and notice of eviction is just as stressful as the dangling axe of repossession for homeowners, except that Tenents usually have to live with this all the time, every contract renewal.

The older more experienced landlords, understand this, and they are the best ones, you can have a good relationship with them, amicable and helpful. Hats of to you guys!

As for my tuppence worth about reducing rents. Never reduced a rent, but have prevented a rental increase. Easily done as we sent he agent details of exactly the same properties they were renting on the same estate at the same rent as we were paying, also reminding them that we had relaid the vinyl in the kitchen (removing the carpet at the dining room end, which would have quickly become ruined) installed the plumbing and power socket for a dishwasher all at our own expense (don't worry we got it all agreed before we did it!), and finally reminded them of the greater loss of a void period if we left...and we would have done, the property was really too small for us anyway.

We have haggled on rental price at the beginning. I say haggled, all we really did was ask if they would accept something a little lower. in fact our very first place, 12 years ago, the agent told us to offer less!! (£535 down from £550). Another place 9 years ago, we offered £750 from £800 on the suggestion that we would be long term tenents (we were there for 3 years in the end), and that we could manage the garden ourselves, so she wouldn't have to pay for a gardener as she was planning. We were also guided then by the agent who suggested that the landlady would probably accept it at that. A year later the landlady took the management away from the agent (she didn't like us being dsiturbed by the regular visits) and asked to up it back up to £800. We agreed because we liked her, and not having the hassle of the agents sounded good. Our final Haggle was on the recent property, advertised at £795, we said we could only really afford £750 (using same argument about long term etc.), and the return was that the lowest she would go was £765. We accepted, deciding that the property was worth that little extra. But am expecting an "argument" over contract renewal time...its just that we've come to expect Letting Agents and Landlords to be adversarial unfortunately.

Good luck tenents, hope the place isn't repossessed, something to bear in mind when discussing rental increases!

mmoore wrote: »

I'm not sure that trimming plants is the Landlords responsibility!

You'll be wanting the washing up done next....:D

It depend on agreements before signing a contract. I moved to the property with garden full of rubish, old trees, stones, etc. The price was cheap, so I spend time and in few months had nice garden: I removed rubish, put new soil, grown grass and now 3 years have very nice garden for kids.

When my landlord asked last spring about increase, I laughed and told him 'no', it was only couple seconds for him to realise that price remains the same. Yes, one more thing, I saw my landlord only 1 time in 3 years time, dealing by emails, and sort all problems myself, he pays bills if necessary. Never delay with payment. I guess he will try rent increase this year, I preparing my speach in advance.

I'm due to move in a few months and will try it; I think me being there will actually increase the value of the property; I'm a clean, quiet and responsible person, and I'm even government licensed in the security industry and have experience in the police; furthermore, one of my references (for CVs and landlords) is quite senior in his role in the DWP.

I'd be willing to look after the garden in return for cheaper rent.